'The Crawler' is on the move ahead of Artemis 1 moon rocket rollout

NASA's massive crawler on the move to pick up the Artemis rocket.

On March 2, the space craft was launched to the comet 67P.

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The giant rocket truck is back in action.

TheCT-2 vehicle began to slowly crawl its way to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will pick up the agency. The pair are set to launch this summer to the moon with Artemis 1, an uncrewed mission and the first to lift off with the agency's Artemis program.

Today's slow move is in preparation for the real action on March 17, when the crawler will carry the moon-bound rocket on a 4-mile (6.4 kilometer) journey to launchpad 39B.

NASA explained the Artemis 1 moon mission in photos.

Crawler-transporter 2 is on the move!This massive transporter is currently making its way to the Vehicle Assembly Building to pick up @NASA_SLS and @NASA_Orion. On March 17, it’ll make the four-mile journey to Launch Complex 39B to drop off the #Artemis I Moon rocket. pic.twitter.com/CytCD4oxyyMarch 11, 2022

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One of NASA's two crawler-transporter vehicles, theCT-2 is used to carry heavy objects like rockets. The vehicle is about the size of a baseball infield and weighs about 6.9 million pounds. The crawler is named after its snail's-pace speeds, as it moves at a top speed of about 1 mph (1.6 kph) fully loaded and 2 mph (3.2 kph) unloaded.

NASA expects many more years from the vehicle, as it has traveled over 2,335 miles (3,758 km) throughout its lifetime.

The job of the crawler is to retrieve SLS and Orion from the VAB and then roll them out to the launch pad next week. The pair will launch on Artemis 1 in May. The first Artemis mission will send the spaceship around the moon and test the craft and the SLS megarocket to see if they are up to the task of safely launching humans to space.

Artemis 2 will send a crew of astronauts on a mission around the moon and back. Humans will be on the moon for the first time in 42 years when Artemis 3 is launched.

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