NASA marked a significant milestone on Tuesday with the rollout of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s core stage from its manufacturing facility in New Orleans. The core stage is now en route to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ahead of its integration for the Artemis II test flight, NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon under the Artemis campaign.
Using highly specialized transporters, engineers carefully maneuvered the massive core stage from inside NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the agency’s Pegasus barge. The barge will transport the stage over 900 miles to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where it will be prepared in the Vehicle Assembly Building for attachment to other rocket and Orion spacecraft components.
“With Artemis, we’ve set our sights on doing something big and incredibly complex that will inspire a new generation, advance our scientific endeavors, and move U.S. competitiveness forward,” said Catherine Koerner, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. “The SLS rocket is a key component of our efforts to develop a long-term presence at the Moon.”
The move of the SLS rocket stage from NASA Michoud coincided with the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch on July 16, 1969. This marks the first time since the Apollo Program that a fully assembled Moon rocket stage for a crewed mission has rolled out from NASA Michoud.
Standing at 212 feet tall, the SLS rocket’s core stage is the largest NASA has ever produced. It comprises five major elements, including two propellant tanks holding over 733,000 gallons of super-chilled liquid propellant to fuel four RS-25 engines. During launch, the core stage will operate for just over eight minutes, generating over 2 million pounds of thrust to propel the Orion spacecraft and its four astronauts toward the Moon.
“The delivery of the SLS core stage for Artemis II to Kennedy Space Center signals a shift from manufacturing to launch readiness,” said John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “We are motivated by the success of Artemis I and focused on working toward the first crewed flight under Artemis.”
Upon arrival at Kennedy, the core stage will undergo additional outfitting in the Vehicle Assembly Building. Engineers will then join it with the twin solid rocket boosters. Adapters connecting the rocket to the Orion spacecraft will be shipped to Kennedy this fall, while the interim cryogenic propulsion stage is already in Florida. Preparations for Orion and exploration ground systems for launch and flight are ongoing at Kennedy.
All major structures for every SLS core stage are manufactured at NASA Michoud, where production is underway for the core stages and future exploration upper stages for Artemis III, IV, and V. Starting with Artemis III, final assembly and outfitting activities will take place at NASA Kennedy to optimize space at Michoud.
The SLS core stage’s development and transport is a collaborative effort involving NASA
, Boeing, and Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company. Contributions come from all 10 NASA centers and over 1,100 companies across the United States.
NASA’s Artemis program aims to land the first woman, the first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon. The SLS rocket is central to NASA’s deep space exploration goals, alongside the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the lunar Gateway, and commercial human landing systems. The SLS is the only rocket capable of sending Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.–News Desk