Tour of the Artemis Moon Rocket Mobile Launcher: Part 1 | Kennedy Space Center
Point-of-View: You are an astronaut about to launch around the Moon.
Explore Mobile Launcher 1 by walking the Launch Complex 39B pad surface, riding up the elevator like the NASA Artemis II crew, and strolling the highest level of the launcher tower for a stellar view of the surrounding landscape.
In part two, we will walk the crew access arm, explore the emergency egress system, and stand in the flame trench used to deflect the 8.8 million pounds of thrust from NASA's Space Launch System during liftoff.
Mobile launcher 1 is the ground structure that is used to assemble, process, and launch NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft from Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for missions to deep space destinations, such as the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
During preparations for launch, the crawler-transporter picks up and moves the mobile launcher into High Bay 3 in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The launcher is secured atop support posts and the crawler moves out. The Orion spacecraft is stacked atop the SLS rocket and processed on the mobile launcher.
The mobile launcher consists of a two-story base that is the platform for the rocket and a tower equipped with a number of connection lines, called umbilicals, and launch accessories that provide SLS and Orion with power, communications, coolant, fuel, and stabilization prior to launch. The tower also contains a walkway for personnel and equipment entering the crew module during launch preparations.
The launcher rolls out to the pad for launch on top of the crawler-transporter, carrying SLS and Orion. After the crawler-transporter makes its eight-hour trek to the pad just over four miles away, engineers lower the launcher onto the pad and remove the crawler-transporter. During launch, each umbilical and launch accessory releases from its connection point, allowing the rocket and spacecraft to lift off safely from the launch pad.
Fun Facts:
Total height above ground: 380 feet
Tower: 40 feet square, about 355 feet tall, 662 steps
Tower floor levels: every 20 feet for personnel access to vehicle and ground support equipment
Approximate weight: 10.5 million pounds
Mobile Launch 1 Fact Sheet:
https://www3.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/final_-_mobile_launcher_1_fact_sheet.pdf
Check the NASA Artemis II Mission page for updates:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/
For more information about SLS, visit:
Credit: NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
Duration: 1 minute, 29 seconds
Release Date: July 31, 2024
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