NASA’s Crawler Preps for Artemis II Rollout
- NASA’s Crawler-Transporter 2 is preparing for the Artemis II rollout at Kennedy Space Center.
- The crawler will transport NASA’s SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft to Launch Complex 39B ahead of the Artemis II launch.
- The Artemis II mission, scheduled for April 2026, will take astronauts around the Moon and back to Earth.
- Crawler-Transporter 2 is a crucial part of the Artemis missions, carrying the load of transporting rockets and spacecraft to the launch pad.
- The crawler-transporters have been used at Kennedy Space Center for over 50 years, with Crawler-Transporter 2 standing ready to support future launch vehicles.
NASA’s Crawler-transporter 2 moves toward the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. The crawler will transport NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft to Launch Complex 39B ahead of the Artemis II launch which will journey Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), around the Moon and back to Earth no later than April 2026.
The crawler-transporters have carried the load of taking rockets and spacecraft to the launch pad for more than 50 years at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Each the size of a baseball infield and powered by locomotive and large electrical power generator engines, the crawler-transporters stand ready to keep up the work for the next generation of launch vehicles to lift astronauts into space; Crawler-transporter 2 in particular is integral to the Artemis missions.
Image credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky