Watch NASA roll Artemis 1 moon rocket to launch pad early Friday - Space.com

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NASA's Artemis 1 satellite rocket volition caput backmost to the motorboat pad erstwhile again aboriginal Friday greeting (Nov. 4), and you'll beryllium capable to ticker the slow-moving enactment live.

The Artemis 1 stack — a immense Space Launch System (SLS) rocket topped with an Orion spacecraft — is scheduled to rotation retired from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) astatine NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) successful Florida astatine 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) connected Friday.

Artemis 1 volition caput toward KSC's Pad 39B, the jumping-off constituent for the mission, which is targeting a motorboat connected Nov. 14. The 4-mile (6.4 kilometers) trek, made atop NASA's elephantine crawler transporter-2 vehicle, is expected to instrumentality astir 10 hours.

NASA volition livestream astatine slightest immoderate of this agelong journey, if past Artemis 1 rollouts are immoderate guide. Space.com volition aerial that webcast, courtesy of the abstraction agency.

NASA's Space Launch System rocket with the Orion capsule atop up of a motorboat pad rollout.

This volition beryllium Artemis 1's 4th travel from the VAB to Pad 39A. The rocket made the trek successful some March and June to behaviour prelaunch fueling tests, past went backmost retired again in mid-August for an attempted liftoff.

Glitches foiled planned motorboat tries successful precocious August and aboriginal September, and NASA past returned Artemis 1 to the VAB successful precocious September to shelter from Hurricane Ian.

Mission squad members person utilized this latest stint successful the VAB to execute immoderate insignificant repair and attraction work, on with a bid to tests to guarantee that Artemis 1 is acceptable to fly.

Artemis 1 is the archetypal ngo successful NASA's Artemis program, which aims to found a permanent, sustainable quality beingness connected and astir the moon by the precocious 2020s.

Artemis 1 volition beryllium the archetypal formation for the SLS and the 2nd for Orion. It volition nonstop the uncrewed capsule connected a astir monthlong shakeout cruise to lunar orbit and back. If each goes well, Artemis 2 volition motorboat astronauts astir the satellite successful 2024 oregon so, and Artemis 3 volition enactment boots down adjacent the lunar southbound rod a twelvemonth oregon 2 later.

Mike Wall is the writer of "Out There (opens successful caller tab)" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a publication astir the hunt for alien life. Follow him connected Twitter @michaeldwall (opens successful caller tab). Follow america connected Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens successful caller tab) or on Facebook (opens successful caller tab).

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Michael Wall is simply a Senior Space Writer with Space.com (opens successful caller tab) and joined the squad successful 2010. He chiefly covers exoplanets, spaceflight and subject space, but has been known to dabble successful the abstraction creation beat. His publication astir the hunt for alien life, "Out There," was published connected Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a subject writer, Michael worked arsenic a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. successful evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's grade from the University of Arizona, and a postgraduate certificate successful subject penning from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find retired what his latest task is, you tin travel Michael connected Twitter.

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