Artemis II rocket arrives to launch pad after slow rollout ahead of April flight date

The NASA Artemis II rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard leaves the Vehicle Assembly Building moving slowly to pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

The Artemis II rocket that’s to carry Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen around the moon made its way Friday to the launch pad ahead of its planned April blastoff.

NASA says it took 11 hours for the 322-foot, or 98-metre, rocket and its accompanying Orion spacecraft to travel four miles, or about six kilometres, from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mission has been delayed a few times since February due to hydrogen fuel leaks and helium flow problems, but is scheduled to launch April 1.

Hansen, who hails from London, Ont., will serve as mission specialist during Artemis II, becoming the first non-American to travel beyond low Earth orbit.

Artemis II will be the first crewed mission to the moon since 1972 — the year of the final Apollo mission.

Space officials say teams are gearing up for the final stretch of prelaunch preparations.

“As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, Artemis II is another step toward new U.S.-crewed missions to the Moon’s surface, leading to a sustained presence on the Moon that will help the agency prepare to send astronauts to Mars,” NASA said in a news release Friday.

The four astronauts slated for the lunar fly-around — Hansen and three Americans — went into quarantine this week in Houston. They will zip around the moon in their capsule and then come straight home.

The new Artemis program aims for a two-person landing in 2028.

By Aaron Sousa

With files from The Associated Press