CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—For the first time in more than 50 years, NASA has mounted a rocket on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in preparation for a manned flight around the moon.
The super heavy lift rocket is called the Space Launch System. Fueled by more than 700,000 pounds of liquid oxygen and hydrogen and two solid rocket boosters reminiscent of the space shuttle era, the orange and white behemoth could, as soon as Feb. 6, carry the Artemis II crew—NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen—on their 10-day voyage around the moon and farther from Earth than any astronauts have gone before.
