Despite all the talk that the Artemis project is not viable, NASA specialists continue to prepare for its realization. Work is progressing well at Cape Canaveral to install the ground equipment needed for a mission to the Moon.

Artemis mission preparations
NASA’s work on future lunar missions is gaining momentum as numerous cargoes of equipment from around the world have begun arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first manned flight of Artemis and subsequent lunar missions. The spaceport’s skyline will soon be adorned with new facilities as teams develop the ground systems needed to support them.
In parallel, the crew of the Artemis II mission is preparing for flight while technicians build up NASA’s mobile launcher 2 tower for use in launching the SLS (Space Launch System) Block 1B rocket, beginning with the Artemis IV mission. This version of NASA’s rocket will use a powerful upper stage to launch with a crew and more cargo for lunar missions. Technicians have begun testing the upper stage hose connections that will help deliver fuel and other cargo to the rocket during launch.
Installation of launching equipment
In the summer of 2024, technicians from NASA and contractor Bechtel National, Inc. completed an important phase called “jack and set” when the center’s mega-engine, crawler transporter, moved the initial assembly of the steel base for mobile launcher 2 from a temporary construction support to six permanent pedestals near the Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building.
“The NASA Bechtel mobile launcher 2 team is ahead of schedule and gaining momentum by the day,” said Darrell Foster, NASA Ground Systems Integration Manager for NASA’s Ground Exploration Systems Program at Kennedy. “In parallel to all of the progress at our main build site, the remaining tower modules are assembled and outfitted at a second construction site on center.”
As construction of the base of mobile launcher 2 continues, installation work is moving on to the integration of the modules that will make up the tower. In mid-October 2024, crews completed the installation of the “chair,” named for its resemblance to a giant seat. The chair serves as a link between the base deck and the vertical modules that will make up the tower, and it is 80 feet tall.
In December 2024, the teams completed the installation and installed Module 4, where the first of seven 40-foot-tall modules was installed on the chair. Becthel crews mounted the module on a heavy crane, lifted it to a height of more than 150 feet and secured the four corners to the tower chair. When completed, the entire mobile launcher structure will reach a height of nearly 400 feet – that’s about the length of four Olympic swimming pools placed closely together.
Testing of pipelines
On the opposite side of the center, test teams at the Launch Equipment Testbed are testing new umbilical interfaces to be placed on mobile launcher 2, which will be needed to support the new SLS Block 1B Exploration Upper Stage. Umbilicals are the connecting lines that provide propellant, oxidizer, pneumatic pressure, instrumentation and electrical connections from the mobile launcher to the upper stage and other elements of the SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
“All ambient temperature testing has been successfully completed and the team is now beginning cryogenic testing, where liquid nitrogen and liquid hydrogen will flow through the umbilicals to verify acceptable performance,” stated Kevin Jumper, laboratory manager at NASA Launch Equipment Test Facility at Kennedy.
The tests include the extension and retraction of the Exploration upper stage, which will be mounted on mobile launcher 2. The test team remotely initiates cantilever retraction, providing the expected separation of the ground and flight cantilevers, simulating the operation that would be performed during launch vehicle takeoff.
According to phys.org