KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – Something big is happening inside NASA’s biggest building.
The launch may have been delayed again, but workers inside the Vehicle Assembly Building are still pressing ahead on getting the second Space Launch System rocket ready for its first crew - four astronauts who will fly around the moon.
On Monday, NASA let reporters get a closeup of the 212-foot core stage booster vertical in high bay 2 as the Artemis II crew took questions.
Pilot Victor Glover addressed the uncertainty of whether the overbudgeted and often-delayed SLS will survive a new administration in Washington.
Glover didn’t feed into speculation.
“Most important, it’s time to get all of that effort on flying no later than April of 2026,” he said. “And so that, to me, is now the point.”
The deputy associate administrator of NASA’s Moon to Mars program talked as well about staying focused on the task at hand.
“I don’t think anybody here has any time to think about anything else other than getting this vehicle processed, getting it rolled out to the pad, and flying the crew safely, frankly,” Amit Kshatriya said.
Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen told reporters waiting for the launch date hasn’t derailed his excitement for being one of the first Artemis crew members.
The astronaut called it an extraordinary opportunity.
“This is where they built rockets that sent humans to the moon the first time,” the astronaut said. “Now, I’m standing in that building looking at the core stage that my crew and I are gonna ride on and fly to the moon. I’m super excited,” he said.
Later, NASA will stack the rocket’s 17-story solid rocket boosters and put the core stage booster in between them like ahead of Artemis I.
Ahead of launch, the rocket will be rolled out of high bay 3 in the direction of Launch Pad 39B.
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