NASA rolled its massive Space Launch System rocket toward its launchpad in Florida on Saturday (January 17), kicking off a final phase of preparations for the agency's Artemis II mission that is poised to send four astronauts around the moon and back as soon as next month.

Traveling just one mile (1.6 km) per hour on its mobile launch platform, the 322-foot-tall (98 m) SLS emerged at sunrise from the giant garage doors of NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center for a crawl to its launchpad some 4 miles away, as hundreds of agency employees and contractors staked out the sidelines to watch.

The mission's crew includes three U.S. astronauts and a Canadian astronaut, and is planned to launch as soon as February 6, though whether that date holds will hinge on a key "wet dress" rehearsal four days prior that simulates the launch countdown to catch any snags or issues before flight.

The rocket's upcoming Artemis II mission is the second under NASA's multibillion-dollar Artemis moon program, following an uncrewed flight in 2022, and the first to carry astronauts, who will fly around the moon in a 10-day journey taking them to the farthest humans have ever ventured in space.

Production: Tom Rowe/Reuters