NASA moves the Artemis II rocket to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, January 17.

The Space Launch System is set to travel about 6.5 kilometres from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B, a journey that takes up to 12 hours on a crawler-transporter.

The move marks the start of final launch preparations, with NASA targeting a launch window between February and April this year.

Artemis II is set to be the agency’s first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit in more than 50 years, sending four astronauts on a 10-day flight around the Moon without landing before returning to Earth. The crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, alongside Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

The mission follows the uncrewed Artemis I flight and supports plans to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.