ML Moves Toward Exploration Mission 1 roll into the VAB HB-3

Preparations are underway to move NASA's mobile launcher, atop crawler-transporter 2, into High Bay 3 at the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on Sept. 8, 2018, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mobile launcher departed Launch Pad 39B after several days of testing with the pad. This is the first time that the modified mobile launcher made the trip to the pad and the VAB. The mobile launcher will spend seven months in the VAB undergoing testing. The 380-foot-tall structure is equipped with the crew access arm and several umbilicals that will provide power, environmental control, pneumatics, communication and electrical connections to the agency's Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft. Exploration Ground Systems is preparing the ground systems necessary to launch SLS and Orion on Exploration Mission-1, missions to the Moon and on to Mars.