After years of delays, NASA’s moon rocket finally rolls out – and this time, it’s carrying astronauts

For a space agency that has spent years insisting it was “nearly ready”, Saturday finally delivered the moment NASA has been waiting for.

At first light in Florida, NASA’s enormous new Moon rocket slowly crept out of the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building and headed for the launch pad – a journey that took all day, at walking pace, but marked a huge step forward for human spaceflight.

If all goes to plan, this will be the first mission to send astronauts around the Moon in more than 50 years.

A long walk back to the Moon

The rocket, known as the Space Launch System (SLS), is impossible to miss. Standing 322 feet tall and weighing around 11 million pounds, it is the most powerful launcher NASA has ever built.

Its slow four-mile journey to the pad began at daybreak and didn’t finish until nightfall. Thousands of NASA workers, along with their families, turned up early to watch – some wrapped in coats against the pre-dawn cold, others holding phones aloft to capture a moment many feared might never arrive.

The building it emerged from added a layer of history. The Vehicle Assembly Building was constructed in the 1960s to house the Saturn V rockets that powered the Apollo missions. Those rockets sent 24 astronauts to the Moon between 1969 and 1972 – and then fell silent.

Now, more than half a century later, the same building has released the rocket meant to take humans back.

NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, was there alongside the four astronauts chosen for the mission. Crew commander Reid Wiseman looked visibly moved.

“What a great day to be here,” he said. “It’s awe-inspiring.”

Not a landing – but a crucial first step

This upcoming mission will not land astronauts on the Moon. Instead, the four-person crew will fly around it and return to Earth after about ten days.

That may sound modest compared to Apollo, but the mission is a major milestone.

No human has travelled that far from Earth since Apollo 17 in 1972, when Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed the chapter on the Moon landings. Only four of the 12 people who walked on the lunar surface are still alive today.

Alongside Wiseman, the crew includes veteran astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch, plus Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who will be making his first trip into space.

NASA already tested the rocket once, in November 2022, when an uncrewed Orion capsule was sent around the Moon. That flight revealed unexpected heat shield damage and other technical issues, forcing months of extra testing and analysis.

“This one feels very different,” said NASA official John Honeycutt ahead of the rollout. “Putting crew on the rocket changes everything.”

The Moon landing itself is planned for a later Artemis mission, still several years away.

Excitement – with a heavy dose of caution

Despite the celebratory mood, NASA is deliberately avoiding firm promises.

Before any launch date is confirmed, engineers must carry out a full fueling test on the launch pad, expected in early February. Only if that goes smoothly will the agency announce when the mission will fly.

Isaacman was blunt about it. “We have zero intention of communicating an actual launch date” until the fueling test is complete, he told reporters.

Timing will be tight. NASA has just five possible launch days in early February before orbital conditions push the mission into March.

For the astronauts, the wait is part of the job. Wiseman said the excitement among former Apollo astronauts has been contagious.

“They’re so fired up that we’re headed back to the Moon,” he said. “They just want to see humans as far away from Earth as possible, discovering the unknown.”

After years of delays, redesigns and doubt, NASA’s Moon programme is finally moving – slowly, carefully, and with history watching every step.

This time, it’s not just about a rocket on a launch pad. It’s about reopening a road that’s been closed for half a century.