NASA's Crawler-transporter 2 prepares to roll Artemis II to the pad.

Crawler-transporter 2 moved toward the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 9 and is slated to carry the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft to Launch Complex 39B ahead of the Artemis II mission, which is planned to send four crew members around the Moon and back no later than April 2026.

NASA's Crawler-transporter 2 moved toward the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 9, 2026, as teams prepare for the Artemis II rollout. The crawler will carry the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft to Launch Complex 39B. Artemis II is scheduled to carry four crew members on a lunar flyby and return no later than April 2026. The crawler-transporters have been used at Kennedy for more than 50 years and remain part of current launch operations. Key details: - Crawler-transporter 2 was observed moving toward the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 9, 2026. - The crawler is set to transport NASA's SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft to Launch Complex 39B for Artemis II. - Artemis II's crew is announced as Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch (NASA), and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency). - The Artemis II mission is described as a lunar flyby and return scheduled no later than April 2026. - Crawler-transporters have supported launches at Kennedy Space Center for more than 50 years and are described as about the size of a baseball infield and powered by locomotive and large electrical generator engines. Summary: The movement of Crawler-transporter 2 marks a preparatory step toward transporting the assembled SLS and Orion to the launch pad for Artemis II. Teams will complete the rollout to Launch Complex 39B and continue checklist and launch preparations ahead of the mission window, with the launch planned no later than April 2026.