NASA’s Artemis II rocket and its four-person crew are all making progress toward a launch pad meet up in April.
Engineers are targeting 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, March 19, to start rolling the Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA’s crawler-transporter 2 will carry the 11-million-pound stack, including the mobile launcher, at about 1 mph along the four-mile route from Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad. The journey, which can take up to 12 hours, will be streamed on NASA’s You Tube channel.
The time of rollout is subject to change if additional time is needed for technical preparations or weather accommodations.
Meanwhile, the Artemis II crew entered quarantine at 5 p.m. CDT Wednesday in Houston, to ensure they stay healthy leading up to launch. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will limit their exposure to others for the next week in Houston, before flying to Kennedy approximately five days before launch, to continue their quarantine from the astronaut crew quarters there.
Both activities are key milestones on the way to a launch as early as Wednesday, April 1. The early April launch window includes opportunities through Monday, April 6.