NASA's new moon rocket rolled out to launchpad

NASA’s massive new moon rocket was moved out to a launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday, where it will be prepped and tested for launch in later this year, reports NPR.

The Artemis 1 rocket traveled overnight to make the four-mile journey from NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Center to Launch Complex 39B, standing upright the entire way.

"It's a huge moment," says NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik.

Taller than the Statue of Liberty at 332 feet (101 meters) tall and weighing 5.75 million pounds, the Artemis is the successor to the Apollo program of the 60s and 70s that carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and other Americans to the surface of the moon.

However, the first mission will not carry a crew. Artemis 1 is meant to test the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule on top designed to carry humans for future trips.

The next step is a “wet dress rehearsal” on Apr. 3, where crews will practice everything up to actually launching the rocket, including fueling and the countdown.

If successful, the rocket will be rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Center for maintenance then launched to the moon as early as June, according to NPR.

The Artemis moon rocket has been criticized for its price. NASA Inspector General Paul Martin estimated the cost of the initial four missions at about $4.1 billion dollars each, an amount equivalent to about one-fifth of NASA’s annual budget. By 2025, the agency will have spent about $93 billion total on Artemis.

"Relying on such an expensive single-use rocket system will, in our judgment, inhibit, if not derail, NASA's ability to sustain its long-term human exploration goals to the moon and Mars,” Paul said, noting that private sector companies like SpaceX could likely do the job cheaper.