NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule rolled to Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center this weekend, a 12-hour crawl from the Vehicle Assembly Building. The mission aims to send astronauts farther from Earth than anyone in history, setting up a fiery reentry speed record over the Pacific Ocean.

The four-person crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—will fly around the Moon without landing. Koch becomes the first woman to reach lunar vicinity, while Hansen is the first non-U.S. astronaut on such a flight. A critical Wet Dress Rehearsal with cryogenic propellant loading looms before a potential February launch.

Launch windows are tight, tied to the Moon’s position and safe reentry angles for Orion’s heat shield. NASA has backup dates in March if needed. The agency is applying lessons from Artemis I’s propellant leaks, but mission managers acknowledge the schedule is success-oriented, requiring everything to go right for the first human lunar flyby since Apollo 17.