NASA's brand new SLS rocket ready for March 18 roll out on launch pad; watch live here

massive Launch System (SLS) rocket, which would kickstart human endeavours to Moon, is rey to roll out onto launch p in early hours of March 18. Currently at  Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), rocket mounted with Orion craft would be brought out to Launch P 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Center in Florida. integrated SLS rocket and Orion is set to launch this summer under uncrewed Artemis I mission of NASA's Artemis program.

When and where to watch rocket rollout?

SLS rocket would be pulled out of Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on March 18 and live cover for rollout would begin at 3:30 am (IST). Interested viewers can tune in to NASA Television,  NASA app, and ncy’s website for live telecast. rollout would involve carrying integrated launch vehicle from VAB to  LaunchP 39B which is located a little over six kilometers apart. 

According to NASA, engineers would conduct wet dress rehearsals, of rocket and craft, which includes loing SLS propellant tanks and conducting a launch countdown. On March 11, NASA h released a video showing  crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2) slowly crawling out of  Vehicle Assembly Building. CT-2 is vehicle that will carry rocket to launch p.

One of ncy's two crawler-transport vehicles, CT-2 is built to carry massive objects like rockets. vehicle weighs about 2.9 million kilograms and is roughly size of a baseball infield. Interestingly, rocket carrier gets its name owing to its slow speed as it moves at a top speed of 1.6 kilometers per hour fully loed and 3.2 kilometers per hour unloed.

Artemis plan

Artemis I mission, targeted for late May 2022, will pave way for NASA's return to Moon in over five deces. While first Artemis launch will be uncrewed, NASA has planned to launch humans around Moon in Artemis II which is scheduled earlier than 2024 if everything goes as per plan. It is Artemis III when astronauts would land on lunar surface again, earlier than 2025, although date could slip to 2026 owing to some issues highlighted by NASA's inspector general Paul Martin.