Artemis II rocket on the way to KSC! 🚀

Good Monday morning, friends. It’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero, and this week I’m excited to get to show you the rocket that will launch the first astronauts to the moon in more than 50 years!

NASA’s massive Space Launch System core stage is on a 900-mile ferry ride from New Orleans where it was made to our space center. In a year, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen plan to become the first to orbit the moon in the Orion spacecraft.

I’m still blown away each time I rewatch my video of the first Artemis launch two years ago, so I can’t even imagine how thrilling it will feel to watch 8.8 million pounds of thrust propel astronauts to outer space next time!

Artemis II managers wrote about the big milestone in a new release.

“The delivery of the SLS core stage for Artemis II to Kennedy Space Center signals a shift from manufacturing to launch readiness as teams continue to make progress on hardware for all major elements for future SLS rockets,” John Honeycutt, the SLS program manager, said. “We are motivated by the success of Artemis I and focused on working toward the first crewed flight under Artemis.”

Once the 212-foot core stage arrives at KSC, they’ll move it inside the Vehicle Assembly Building and attach the solid rocket boosters. As I got to see before Artemis I, here’s what stacking the twin 17-story SRBs looks like.

Artemis II will precede Artemis III, hopefully, a year later, when astronauts will land on the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.

I’ll rejoin you at KSC Wednesday! Until then, not everything feels so hunky dory for the mission. Check out this story I worked on in May about what’s looking like the biggest concern for the astronauts and their safety.

📧 Have any topics you’d like to discuss? Send me an email here.

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👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.

Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.

Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).

Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!

From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)

Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.

After eight years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.

Have a great launch into the rest of your week!