NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, are seen at Launch Pad 39B, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

SLS is growing on me. She’s not nearly as pretty as Grandaddy Saturn V, and not nearly the launch vehicle that could have been, without repeated budget cuts and program cancellations over the years.

But she’s here, she’s poised, and she’s going to the moon with humans. I look forward to her rocking and rolling next month.