https://tube.blueben.net/videos/watch/7170ae55-1d36-47a3-b378-8aa57db59975 The Space Launch System costs $4.1 billion every time it leaves the ground — and on April 1, 2026, it carried four astronauts toward the Moon for the first time in over 50 years. This episode follows the actual Artemis II rocket from the factory floor to the Pacific Ocean. Inside NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility, a 170-foot robotic tool friction-stir welds the largest rocket stage ever flown, producing joints stronger than the metal around them. Watch technicians machine mating rings to one one-thousandth of an inch, drive 360 precision bolts into a single joint, and install veteran RS-25 engines with twenty-two shuttle missions between them — including one that flew the final shuttle mission in 2011 — only to drop them in the ocean after a single flight. Then follow the 212-foot core stage on a 900-mile barge ride, through an 11-month stack inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, and out to Pad 39B on a 6.6-million-pound crawler moving at one mile per hour. After hydrogen and helium leaks erased two launch windows, the rocket flew on its first attempt, broke Apollo 13's 56-year distance record at 252,756 miles, and brought Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen home to a Pacific splashdown. This is what $4.1 billion actually buys: a failure rate of zero. Credits: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gFbyBV6VMIkau7hJ0ewarL1W0dadv6H1Ca37AHYo65Q/preview Join this 'Paper Pilot Club' to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzgWZmqmKpmsr4oPWITusKA/join SUBSCRIBE: https://www.bit.ly/beyondFactsSUB #nasa #spaceship #beyondfacts Sat, 04 Jul 2026 10:58:47 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://tube.blueben.net https://tube.blueben.net/client/assets/images/icons/icon-96x96.png https://tube.blueben.net/videos/watch/7170ae55-1d36-47a3-b378-8aa57db59975 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://tube.blueben.net/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.