NASA's lunar rocket arrives at launch pad before first Artemis mission

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket arrived at a launch pad at Kennedy Space Station on Wednesday, roughly two weeks before it's set to make a debut test launch.

Why it matters: The flight will mark the first mission in NASA's Artemis program, through which the space agency hopes to send astronauts back to the moon.

• The mission, set for Aug. 29, is expected to take three test dummies in a distant orbit around the moon for several days before returning to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

The big picture: The SLS's journey with NASA's Orion spacecraft aboard it from its hangar to Launch Complex 39B took nearly 10 hours over Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Go deeper: Small NASA satellite launches on big mission to orbit the Moon