Artemis II rolls to pad
NASA rolled the Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center — a key milestone ahead of a planned April 1–6, 10‑day crewed lunar loop test flight. The mission will loop around the Moon and return, serving as a critical precursor to future lunar landing operations. (space.com, nasa.gov)
The overnight transfer began at 12:20 a.m. EDT and the stack reached Launch Complex 39B after roughly an 11-hour trek executed by Crawler‑Transporter 2, which moves at a maximum of about 0.82 mph. (nasa.gov) A wet dress rehearsal on Feb. 21 exposed a blocked helium flow in an upper‑stage quick‑disconnect, prompting engineers to return the vehicle to the Vehicle Assembly Building to remove a dislodged seal and redesign a secondary seal before conducting reduced‑flow helium validation trials. (nasa.gov) While inside the VAB teams replaced flight‑termination‑system batteries, swapped other batteries on the core stage, upper stage and solid boosters, charged Orion’s launch‑abort batteries, replaced a seal on the core‑stage liquid‑oxygen feed line, and reassembled and retested the oxygen tail‑service‑mast umbilical plate. (nasa.gov) The mobile launcher supporting the stack stands about 380 feet tall and weighs roughly 11.5 million pounds, while the SLS/Orion stack atop it reaches about 322 feet in height. (nasa.gov) The four astronauts assigned to the mission are Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot), Christina Koch (mission specialist) and Jeremy Hansen (mission specialist), and the Orion crew module for this flight has been named “Integrity” by the crew. (nasa.gov) Teams completed a Flight Readiness Review in mid‑March, with program leadership polling “go” on March 12, and have now moved into pad‑flow activities that include umbilical hookups and ground‑system checkouts ahead of final launch processing. (nasaspaceflight.com)
