NASA’s new mobile launcher under construction at Kennedy Space Center to support future Artemis moon missions grew up a little in the new year.

Lead contractor Bechtel National Inc. on Friday completed the lift and placement of the first of seven modular steel blocks that will eventually grow the tower to 390 feet tall.

“This is a significant milestone for the Bechtel and NASA teams,” said Mike Costas, Bechtel’s General Manager of Defense and Space in a press release. “The project team hauled our first tower module 6 miles across Kennedy Space Center, lifted the 550,000-pound assembly over 150 feet and placed it safely on top of the tower chair.”

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Each of the seven modules that are at least 40 feet tall and weigh at least 400,000 pounds are to be assembled at KSC in a “mod yard,” that allows for safer construction. They are then transported to the main tower construction site adjacent the massive Vehicle Assembly Building.

Bechtel has a deadline to deliver their end of the ML2 to NASA by November 2026, which would give NASA a little under two years before it would be needed for its first launch, which for now is the planned Artemis IV mission with a larger version of the Space Launch System rocket than is being used for the first three Artemis missions.

Artemis I, which launched off the existing mobile launcher, flew in late 2022 while Artemis II, the first crewed flight in the program on an eight-day mission to fly around but not land on the moon, is slated for no later than April 2026.

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Artemis III aims to return humans, including the first woman, to the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. That mission has been delayed until mid-2027.

The use of ML2 on future Artemis missions will be dependent on continued budget support from Congress and the direction dictated by President-elect Trump and his nominee to be the new head of NASA, billionaire Jared Isaacman, who has flown twice to space with the help of SpaceX.

Each part of Artemis including the SLS rocket, Orion spacecraft and mobile launcher preparation under NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems, have seen significant cost increases and time slips in the last decade, with only the one launch performed so far.

The ML2 project, which was initially a $383 million contract awarded in 2019, had an original delivery date of 2023. A NASA Office of Inspector General audit released in August 2024 said the costs had already nearly tripled to more than $1 billion with the delivery date pushed into late 2026.

Bechtel officials late last year said they were optimistic their side of the work will hit the target due date, if not earlier.

Already, the base of the tower had surpassed 80 feet, and with the new module completing what the company called a the “rig and set process,” has risen to 190 feet.

“This is the beginning of a new phase of rapid vertical installation of the remaining tower modules, which will be
stacked successively on top of one another over the coming months,” the company stated in a press release.

The full height will be nearly 38 stories, and stacking requires a massive crane that can itself extend to 500 feet tall.

For the first modular block’s installation, teams involving about 50 people took two days to complete.

The ML2 build is NASA’s largest active construction project with Bechtel working at five sites across KSC. The company said up to 600 craft workers such as welders, iron workers, carpenters and electricians, will be involved on the project before its completion.