Artemis II rollout from VAB to launch pad 39B at KSC

NASA is now one step closer to its next human mission to the moon, more than 53 years after Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on December 19, 1972. The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft "»Integrity« began its first movement in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at 7:00 a.m. on January 17, 2026. After leaving the VAB, the SLS was transported at 1.5 kilometers per hour over a distance of 6.8 kilometers by Crawler Transporter 2 (CT-2), powered by 2,750 hp diesel engines, to launch pad 39B. The rollout took about 8 hours until it arrived at the launch pad.
The next crucial milestone is the wet dress rehearsal, a simulated countdown including, for example, the complete refueling and subsequent defueling of the SLS core stage. If this wet dress rehearsal is successful, Artemis II could launch on a 10-day mission to the moon during the first possible launch window in early February. The launch window begins on February 6 and ends on February 11. The next launch window will be in early March.
The SLS rocket, in its Block 1 version, is 98 meters high and weighs 2,610 tons. The crawler transporter weighs 2,721 tons and the Mobile Launcher 1 (ML-1), with a height of 116 meters, weighs approx. 5,216 tons. This results in a total weight of around 10,500 tons moving at 1.5 kilometers per hour to launch pad 39B.