America's next mission to the moon is happening in only a few weeks.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket began its 1-mph (1.6-kph) creep from Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building at daybreak. Thousands of space center workers and their families gathered in the predawn chill to witness the long-awaited event,

NASA announced that the earliest launch window for Artemis II is Feb. 6, 2026, with 12 more possible dates available from February-April. The Artemis mission, a followup to the Apollo program, hopes to have astronauts back on the moon’s surface by 2027.

A NASA astronaut on the ISS captured the Space Launch System rocket for Artemis 2, a mission that aims to bring four astronauts around the moon as soon as Feb. 6.

NASA’s Artemis II rocket is set to roll to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, the first 4 miles with another 600,000 to go with four crew around the moon.

NASA moved the rocket slated to carry four astronauts around the moon to the launch pad on Saturday, a key step as the Artemis II moon mission nears.