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Artemis II rocket on the way to KSC! ๐Ÿš€

Artemis II rocket (Copyright 2024 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.)

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

NASAโ€™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.

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Iโ€™m still blown away each time I rewatch my video of the first Artemis launch two years ago, so I canโ€™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.

โ€œThe 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,โ€ John Honeycutt, the SLS program manager, said. โ€œWe are motivated by the success of Artemis I and focused on working toward the first crewed flight under Artemis.โ€

Once the 212-foot core stage arrives at KSC, theyโ€™ll move it inside the Vehicle Assembly Building and attach the solid rocket boosters. As I got to see before Artemis I, hereโ€™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.

Iโ€™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 whatโ€™s looking like the biggest concern for the astronauts and their safety.

๐Ÿ“ง Have any topics youโ€™d like to discuss? Send me an email here.

๐Ÿ‘‹ Hereโ€™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 werenโ€™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. Iโ€™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, Iโ€™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 Iโ€™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 Iโ€™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!


About the Authors
Daniel Dahm headshot

Daniel started with WKMG-TV in 2000 and became the digital content manager in 2009. When he's not working on ClickOrlando.com, Daniel likes to head to the beach or find a sporting event nearby.

Brenda Argueta headshot

Brenda Argueta is a digital journalist who joined ClickOrlando.com in March 2021. She is the author of the Central Florida Happenings newsletter that goes out every Thursday.

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