Watch NASA roll huge Artemis 2 moon rocket out to the launch pad on Jan. 17

NASA's Artemis II Live Views from Kennedy Space Center - YouTube

NASA will roll its Artemis 2 moon rocket out to the launch pad on Saturday (Jan. 17), and you can watch the slow-moving action live.

an orange and white rocket sits on a launch pad beneath cloudy skies — The Artemis 1 stack sits atop Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on March 18, 2022, following its hours-long rollout. (Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Artemis 2 will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, on a 10-day trip around the moon and back. It will be the first crewed mission to lunar realms since Apollo 17 way back in 1972.

After rollout is complete, NASA will conduct a number of checkouts with Artemis 2's SLS and Orion. One of the most important tests is a wet dress rehearsal, during which teams will load the rocket with its cryogenic propellants and conduct a simulated launch countdown.

That milestone is currently planned for Feb. 2, and how it goes will help set the timeline for launch. And a smooth wet dress is far from guaranteed.

Wet dress rehearsals for the Artemis 1 mission, for example, revealed leaks of liquid hydrogen. NASA rolled the Artemis 1 stack back to the VAB multiple times to deal with the issue, which, among other factors, delayed the mission's launch significantly.

Artemis 1 successfully sent an uncrewed Orion to lunar orbit and back. The mission lifted off on Nov. 16, 2022 and ended with Orion's Pacific Ocean splashdown on Dec. 11 of that year.

NASA has not yet announced a target launch date for Artemis 2 and will not do so until the wet dress and other key checkouts are in the books.

There are three liftoff windows for the mission at the moment, which feature potential launch opportunities on Feb. 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11; March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11; and April 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively.

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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