After successfully being used to launch the Artemis II lunar test flight on April 1, NASA’s mobile launcher now is inside NASA Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in Florida in preparation for the Artemis III test flight mission rocket stacking operations.
NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program rolled the launcher on a 4-mile trek from Launch Pad 39B to the VAB along the crawlerway on April 16. The trip, which normally takes eight to 12 hours on top of the agency’s crawler-transporter 2, had several built-in pauses to allow teams to rest. The launcher arrived inside the VAB at 11:40 a.m. EDT, Friday, April 17.
Standing 380 feet tall, the mobile launcher – which will be used to assemble, process, and launch the Artemis III mission’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft – contains all the connection lines, known as umbilicals, and ground support equipment that will provide the rocket and spacecraft with the power, communications, fuel, and coolant necessary for launch. This was the mobile launcher’s last solo trek out to the launch pad ahead of integration of the SLS rocket, and it will remain inside the VAB until it is ready to return to the pad with the rocket.
Now inside the VAB, technicians and engineers will finish conducting Artemis II post-launch inspections and repairs in preparation for the Artemis III mission next year.