Nasa’s mega Moon rocket has arrived at the launch pad

Nasa’s mega rocket has been moved to the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as final preparations begin for the first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years.

Over nearly 12 hours, the 98m-tall Space Launch System was carried vertically from the Vehicle Assembly Building on the 4-mile (6.5km) journey to the pad.

Now in position, the final tests, checks – and a dress rehearsal – will take place, before giving the go-ahead for the 10-day Artemis II mission that will see four astronauts orbit the Moon.

Nasa says the earliest the rocket can blast off is February 6, but there are also multiple launch windows later that month, as well as in March and April.

The rocket started moving at 07:04 local time (12:04 GMT) and arrived at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center at 18:41 local time (23:42 GMT).

The rocket is carried by a large machine called a crawler-transporter, which travels at a maximum speed of 0.82 mph (1.3 km/h) while it is running. Live coverage captured the scene in slow motion.

Nasa said the rocket will be prepared in the next few days for a so-called “wet dress rehearsal” – a test for fuel operations and counting procedures.

The crew of Artemis II – Nasa’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen – were at the Kennedy Space Center watching the rocket as it was moved.

In just a few weeks, the four astronauts will be strapped to a spacecraft, located on top of the rocket, ready to blast off to the Moon.

It was the first manned mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 landed on it in December 1972.

Nasa says the mission could take its astronauts into space like never before.

Artemis II is not scheduled to land on the Moon, but will instead lay the groundwork for a future lunar landing led by the Artemis III mission.

Nasa has said that the launch of Artemis III will happen “no earlier than” 2027. However, experts believe that 2028 is the earliest possible date.

Koch said it was an amazing feeling to see the rocket.

“Astronauts are the calmest people on launch day. And I think … that’s how it feels because we’re ready to accomplish the mission that we came here to do, that we trained to do,” he said.

Hansen said he hopes the mission will inspire the world.

“The Moon is something I take for granted. I’ve looked at it my whole life, but then you just look at it and walk away,” he said.

“But now I’m looking at it more, and I think others will join us and look at the Moon more because there are people flying around the far side and that’s good for humanity.”

Before Artemis II goes to the Moon, the first two days of its mission will be spent in orbit around Earth.

“We’re going into an orbit almost instantly that’s 40,000 miles away – about a fifth of the way to the Moon,” Koch told BBC News.

“We’re going to throw the Earth out the window like a ball, something that none of us have ever seen before.

“And then we’ll travel a quarter of a million miles away … we’ll do a lot of science and surgery along the way.”

As they fly around the far side of the Moon, the crew will have three hours dedicated to lunar observation – to look, take pictures and study its geology, which will help plan and prepare for the future landing at the south pole of the Moon.

An important part of the Orion spacecraft where the astronauts will fly is made in Bremen, Germany.

The European Service Module, which sits behind the crew capsule, is the European Space Agency’s contribution to the mission and was built by Airbus.

“The European Service Module is very important – we couldn’t have gone to the Moon without it,” said Sian Cleaver, a spacecraft engineer at Airbus.

“It provides the propulsion Orion needs to get us to the Moon.”

Its large solar arrays generate all the electricity for the craft, he added.

“We also have these big tanks full of oxygen and nitrogen, which are mixed to make air, and also water, so we can provide everything the astronauts need in the crew module to keep them alive on their journey.”

Inside their clean room, the team was busy building more modules for Artemis’ future missions. Each took about 18 months to put together but took thousands of engineering hours to design. Everything on board must work perfectly.

“We need to get astronauts to the Moon and then back again, completely safely,” Cleaver said.

With the rocket now on launchpad 39B, the Artemis team is working around the clock to get it ready for liftoff.

The mission has already faced years of delays, and Nasa is under pressure to get the astronauts on their way as soon as possible. However, the US space agency said it would not compromise safety.

John Honeycutt, chair of the Artemis mission management team, said: “I have one job, and that is the safe return of Reid and Victor and Christina and Jeremy.

“We will fly when we are ready … the safety of the crew is our number one priority.”