It stands taller than the Statue of Liberty, 32 stories, weighs 2,600 tons and is set to blast off into space from the Kennedy Space Center and take a lap around the moon before returning to Earth.
It’s NASA’s new mega-rocket, which is set to kickstart America’s lunar exploration for the first time in over a decade. The mammoth structure is being transported, very slowly, to the launch site. It’s a very short distance, roughly four miles, that will take 11 hours.
Nasa is intent on putting some humans on the Moon again. The US Apollo program sent six manned missions there from 1969 to 1972, but none since. The goal is to have humans walking on the moon by 2025.
After a couple of weeks of tests, there will be a final wet dress rehearsal, where over 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant will be loaded into the rocket.
The uncrewed mission will launch in May, June, or July if things go well.
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