Artemis II Rocket: Ready to Launch for Historic Manned Lunar Mission

It's been more than five decades since man has been to the moon. The new Artemis II rocket, rolled out to Pad-39B at Kennedy Space Center this past weekend, is supposed to end that long drought. Standing at 322-ft. tall, just 41-ft. short of the height of the Saturn V rockets that first took humans to the moon, it's designed to fly a crew of four into deep space (farthest man has ever traveled from Earth) with a launch window starting in early February. It will not land on the lunar surface, but orbit as the Artemis I spacecraft did sans humans in 2022. This is the first major project that new NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, 42, has inherited since his confirmation in mid-December. We say inherited because the program has been a decade in the making, with several delays along the way. But NASA, and Isaacman, feel that the spacecraft is now ready - and safe - for human transport. "This is such an exciting mission, and we need all of the [media] stories possible,” says Isaacman. "It's NASA's time to captivate the world again." The seasoned crew is made up of Reid Wiseman, 50, Commander; Victor Glover, 49, Pilot; Christina Koch, 46, Mission Specialist; and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, 49, Mission Specialist. All have flown to space except Hansen. The rollout was attended by media from all over the world, including this reporter, the Artemis crew and Isaacman. The 11-million-lb. behemoth took a dozen hours to ferry from the NASA housing building to the launch pad, creeping along at an average speed of around one mph. Artemis II is a hybrid rocket built by several manufacturers, the main ones being Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman. (Editor's Note: Forbes will be attending the upcoming launch, so stay tuned for updates.)