CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — In a first step toward NASA astronauts' return to the moon, crews today moved, and are testing, the mobile launcher, which is designed to send NASA's new rocket to space.

At a slow, steady 1 mile per hour, NASA's large crawler transporter made its way on a five-hour journey from the Vertical Assembly Building (VAB ) to Kennedy Space Center Pad 39B.


What You Need To Know

  • The move Tuesday is an early step in plans to return to the moon

  • The mobile launcher and SLS rocket will be assembled together inside the VAB

  • The new rocket will send the Orion capsule and astronauts back to the moon

  • A moon launch is scheduled for 2024

Towering on top is the 380-foot-tall, more than 10 million-pound mobile launcher, which will send an SLS rocket, and the Orion capsule with astronauts back to the moon under the Artemis Program.

There are advantages of using a mobile launcher.

Mobile Launcher Project Manager Cliff Lanham said the launcher and the new rocket will be assembled together and protected from weather​ inside the VAB.

"It will only be exposed for about two weeks during launch campaigns," Lanham said.

But there are steps engineers must take on the ground before they can fly. Ground crews are doing some practice runs and preparing Pad 39B, which years ago was converted to a “clean” pad designed for mobile launchers.

Plus, they are performing a top-to-bottom wash-down to clean away any pad debris.

Pad 39B has undergone extensive refurbishment to its infrastructure and three, 600-foot-tall lightning towers.

"We are going to be meticulous,” Lanham said. “We are going to be cautious, first time."

All of this leads up to launch sometime in 2024, when the United States will send the next man, and first woman, to the moon — and eventually beyond to places like Mars.​