NASA Rolls out Mega Moon Rocket Space Launch System

NASA engineers completed final tests of the Space Launch System (SLS), clearing the way for the mega moon rocket to roll out to the launch pad.

A transporter-crawler moved the 322-foot-tall SLS from the Vehicle Assembly Building to launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center after it had completed key tests of the rocket’s flight termination system (FTS).

The FTS is a critical series of components that ensure a rocket can be safely destroyed after launch in the case of a major failure. Testing of the FTS was “the final major activity” on NASA’s pre-launch to-do list, the agency said.

Testing and installing the FTS was last on the list because the system starts a proverbial “clock” of around 20 days for launch. If launch does not occur within this period, the system must be retested. This time frame is set by the U.S. Space Force and by the FTS’s own battery system.

That means NASA is on track for a first launch attempt of the Artemis I mission on August 29. Thanks to the extension, NASA can now make backup launch attempts on September 2 and September 5.