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NASA and its partners across the country are continuing to make progress on the crewed Artemis missions with hardware for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rockets for Artemis II, III, and IV already in various phases of production, assembly, and testing.
SLS proved to be the world’s most powerful rocket, when its two solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 engines produced more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff to send NASA’s Orion spacecraft beyond the Moon and back on Artemis I. Data from the first flight of SLS is helping engineers build confidence in the rocket’s systems to safely fly crew on future lunar missions
In this image, all of the booster motors for the two solid rocket boosters on the SLS rocket for Artemis II are complete and will be readied for shipment from Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Utah to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida later this year.
Image credit: Northrop Grumman
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The first four Artemis missions will use NASA’s 16 upgraded RS-25 engines that previously powered space shuttle flights. For future flights on the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA and prime contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne are changing the way they build major parts for the RS-25. Engineers and technicians are fabricating some of these parts using advanced manufacturing techniques that increase reliability while reducing both the cost and and time to build the engine.
The first RS-25 powerhead produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne in over a decade arrived at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi on Oct. 25. Here, it will be installed to a flight certification engine built specifically for testing newly designed parts for the latest production RS-25 engine that will power SLS flights beyond Artemis IV.
The powerhead serves as the structural backbone to the RS-25. It houses three highly complex injectors that produce the combustion to power the engine and acts as a junction for several critical parts, including both high pressure pumps and the main combustion chamber.
Image Credit: NASA
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NASA’s integrated SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission is inching closer to launch – literally.
The agency will begin the multi-hour trek from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today, Jan. 17. Tune into a live feed of rollout on NASA’s YouTube channel.
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NASA’s Artemis II flight test will take Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), around the Moon and back to Earth no later than April 2026.
Image Description: NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, is seen inside the Vehicle Assembly building as preparations continue for roll out to Launch Pad 39B, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
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As NASA moves closer to launch of the Artemis II test flight, the agency soon will roll its SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft to the launch pad for the first time at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin final integration, testing, and launch rehearsals.
NASA is targeting no earlier than Saturday, Jan. 17, to begin the multi-hour trek from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B. The four-mile journey on the crawler-transporter-2 will take up to 12 hours. Teams are working around the clock to close out all tasks ahead of rollout. However, this target date is subject to change if additional time is needed for technical preparations or weather.
NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket is seen inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building as teams await the arrival of Artemis II crewmembers to board their Orion spacecraft on top of the rocket as part of the Artemis II countdown demonstration test, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
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The 70% illuminated Moon appears to pop out of NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building Tuesday night, while the Space Launch System (SLS) + Orion hides from view (on the other side of the VAB).
Teams at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, recently completed welding the launch vehicle stage adapter for Artemis II, the first flight with astronauts. Teams moved the Artemis II launch vehicle stage adapter to another area of the Marshall facility to finish outfitting and assembly. The LVSA flight hardware is produced exclusively at Marshall by Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville.
Image Credit: NASA
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Saturday morning with SLS & Orion (redux): Lots of lightning, and then 20-minutes later the rising Sun appeared through the clouds and rain.
That rocket, NASA's Space Launch System, is scheduled to launch on 8/29, sending the Orion spacecraft to the Moon.
The fully stacked twin solid rocket boosters for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket are mated atop the mobile launcher at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as stacking and assembly activities for NASA’s Artemis I mission are underway. Crews from the spaceport’s Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs teams are currently preparing to lift the 188,000-pound core stage and place it in between the two solid rocket boosters. Teams will use a specialized crane to lift, place, and secure the core stage on the mobile launcher inside the spaceport’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).
The 212-foot-tall core stage, which will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust at launch, arrived at Kennedy on April 27. Together with the two solid rocket boosters, the SLS rocket will provide more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust to launch the first of NASA’s next-generation Artemis Moon missions. Soon after the core stage activity, crews will stack and integrate other elements of the rocket needed for launch preparedness testing that occurs inside the VAB before final assembly of the rocket and the addition of the Orion spacecraft. The mobile launcher serves as a platform not just for stacking but as a key supplier of power, communications, coolants, and propellant for the rocket and spacecraft before launch.
With Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon and establish sustainable exploration in preparation for missions to Mars. SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft, along with the commercial human landing system and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, are NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
Credit: NASA
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This timelapse video shows NASA's Pegasus barge arriving at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Saturday, Jan. 7. Marshall crews offloaded a transportation stand that will support manufacturing and production of hardware for future crewed Artemis missions. The barge ferried the stand from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it was used to transport the launch vehicle stage adapter (LVSA) of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for Artemis I. NASA and Teledyne Brown Engineering, lead contractor of the LVSA, will use the stand to maneuver the Artemis III LVSA hardware from facility to facility, across the facility, and for application of the thermal protection system.
Credits: NASA/Sam Lott and Brandon Hancock
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Fully loading the propellant and detecting no leaks is a major milestone for the Green Run test series. A total of 114 tanker trucks delivered propellant to six propellant barges next to the B-2 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The barges deliver more than 733,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket as part of the seventh test in the Green Run test series. The wet dress rehearsal test marks the first time propellant is loaded and drained from the propellant tanks of the stage that will help power Artemis I. Six propellant barges send fuel through a special feed system and lines in the test stand to the rocket stage.
Image Credit: NASA
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‘Twas the day before launch and all across the globe, people await liftoff for Artemis I with hope.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft with its European Service Module, is seen here on Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, on 12 November.
After much anticipation, NASA launch authorities have given the GO for the first opportunity for launch: tomorrow, 16 November with a two-hour launch window starting at 07:04 CET (06:04 GMT, 1:04 local time).
Artemis I is the first mission in a large programme to send astronauts around and on the Moon sustainably. This uncrewed first launch will see the Orion spacecraft travel to the Moon, enter an elongated orbit around our satellite and then return to Earth, powered by the European-built service module that supplies electricity, propulsion, fuel, water and air as well as keeping the spacecraft operating at the right temperature.
The European Service Modules are made from components supplied by over 20 companies in ten ESA Member States and USA. As the first European Service Module sits atop the SLS rocket on the launchpad, the second is only 8 km away being integrated with the Orion crew capsule for the first crewed mission – Artemis II. The third and fourth European Service Modules – that will power astronauts to a Moon landing – are in production in Bremen, Germany.
With a 16 November launch, the three-week Artemis I mission would end on 11 December with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The European Service Module detaches from the Orion Crew Module before splashdown and burns up harmlessly in the atmosphere, its job complete after taking Orion to the Moon and back safely.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
Technicians with NASA's Exploration Ground Systems rehearse booster stacking operations inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Sept.14, in preparation for the Artemis I launch. The team is using full-scale replicas of booster segments, referred to as pathfinders, for the practice exercise in one of the tallest sections, or high bays, of the VAB built for stacking rockets. As part of the rehearsal, a pathfinder for an aft segment, the very bottom of the stack, was prepared in High Bay 4. Then, a team of crane operators moved the segment into High Bay 3, where it was placed on the mobile launcher. Careful measurements were taken before the team added a center segment to the stack.
The actual Space Launch System (SLS) booster segments will be stacked on the mobile launcher later this year, following completion of Green Run testing of the rocket's core stage -- a series of eight tests taking place at the agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Under the Artemis program, NASA is working toward landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will test SLS and the Orion spacecraft as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon.
Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
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Metallica is adding "Fuel" to the fire of our #Artemis missions to the Moon.
Building on the success of the Artemis I mission, the Artemis II mission will send NASA astronauts commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, flight engineer Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut mission specialist Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day flight test around the Moon. Their journey will be the first crewed mission on NASA’s path toward establishing a long-term lunar presence.
Video description: As Metallica's “Fuel” begins to play, shots of the Artemis I launch and footage of astronauts in orange flight suits is shown. At 18 seconds, we see four astronauts walking toward the camera as text comes on the screen, “The Next Generation.” Footage of the Artemis I launch continues, as “of Space Exploration” text appears on the screen. A photo of the crew for Artemis II appears with the text “The Crew.” At 35 seconds in, we see side profile portraits of each crew member. NASA Astronaut Christina Koch appears with the text “Koch - Mission Specialist.” CSA Astronaut Jeremy Hansen appears with the text “Hansen - Mission Specialist.” NASA Astronaut Victor Glover appears with the text “Glover - Pilot.” Finally, NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman appears with the text “Wiseman - Commander.” To end the video, a black screen comes to view and an animated Artemis logo appears before a glitch effect is used to transition to the NASA logo.
Credit: NASA/Brandon Hancock and Sam Lott
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"Space Launch System at sunrise" or "Old man shakes fist at cloud" (working title).
The plan was to have the disc of the rising Sun behind the giant rocket on LC-39B, but the clouds had other plans. The view was stunning, just not what we intended. In this frame, you can see the Sun taunting us through a small gap in the clouds (under the water tower), so we had the alignment correct. But even that notch above (and to the right of) the rocket ended up moving with the Sun, so there was no breakthrough moment.
Despite the disappointment, the view was beautiful and striking; pick a superlative, and it applies.
Big thanks to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex team for indulging this early morning attempt. This is the view of the pad from the Apollo / Saturn V Center, and the plan is to offer this as a viewing location for the Artemis I launch, which is just incredible. Although this view is with a 500mm lens, I posted a wider shot yesterday that better shows the close view. Previous non-SLS launch viewings from this location have been titled "Feel the heat," a description that will probably need to be enhanced (and possibly disclaimed) for this monster of a rocket.
NASA’s launch and mission teams, along with the Artemis II crew, completed a key test Dec. 20, a countdown demonstration test, ahead of the Artemis II flight around the Moon early next year. The astronauts, supported by launch and flight control teams, dressed in their launch and entry suits, boarded their spacecraft on top of its towering rocket at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to validate their launch date timeline.
Winding the clock down to a point just before liftoff, the rehearsal enabled NASA teams to practice the exact steps teams will take as they move toward launch of the test flight.
From right to left, NASA astronauts Christina Koch, mission specialist; Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist are seen as they depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to board their Orion spacecraft atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building as part of the Artemis II countdown demonstration test, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
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As we approach Artemis II, work continues for future missions as well. Here, a technician is seen in front of the liquid oxygen tank for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket core stage for the Artemis III mission as it was lifted into a production cell last month.
It was then carried to another area of the factory where it was set atop the previously loaded inter tank.
Image Credit: NASA/Steven B. Seipel
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NASA is headed back to the Moon as part of the Artemis program – and the agency’s “worm” logo will be along for the ride on the first integrated mission of the powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft. Teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have applied the historic logo in bright red on visible parts of the Artemis I rocket and spacecraft.
Here, the NASA logotype, or "worm" logo, is seen on a booster segment of the Space Launch System rocket that will fly on Artemis I.
Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
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We're working late, cause there's a super blue Moon 😍
#NASAMichoud photographer Michael DeMocker captured this stunning image of the super blue Moon rising over Huntsville, Alabama, home to #NASAMarshall and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, on Aug. 19.
Visible through Wednesday, Aug. 21, the full Moon is both a supermoon and a Blue Moon. As the Moon reaches its closest approach to Earth, the Moon looks larger in the night sky with supermoons becoming the biggest and brightest full Moons of the year. While not blue in color, the third full Moon in a season with four full Moons is called a “Blue Moon.”
#NASA #NASAMoon #Moon #SuperMoon #SuperBlueMoon #Photography #Photo #SpacePhotography #Rocket #SaturnV #Apollo
NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket poised to send four astronauts from Earth on a journey around the Moon next year may appear identical to the Artemis I SLS rocket. On closer inspection, though, engineers have upgraded the agency’s Moon rocket inside and out to improve performance, reliability, and safety.
SLS flew a picture perfect first mission on the Artemis I test flight, meeting or exceeding parameters for performance, attitude control, and structural stability to an accuracy of tenths or hundredths of a percent as it sent an uncrewed Orion thousands of miles beyond the Moon. It also returned volumes of invaluable flight data for SLS engineers to analyze to drive improvements.
For Artemis II, the major sections of SLS remain unchanged – a central core stage, four RS-25 main engines, two five-segment solid rocket boosters, the ICPS (interim cryogenic propulsion stage), a launch vehicle stage adapter to hold the ICPS, and an Orion stage adapter connecting SLS to the Orion spacecraft. The difference is in the details.
In this image, teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems integrate the SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket with the solid rocket boosters onto mobile launcher 1 inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in March 2025. Artemis II is the first crewed test flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign and is another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars.
Credits: NASA/Frank Michaux
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NASA joined the Space Launch System rocket’s core stage forward assembly with the 130-foot liquid hydrogen tank for the Artemis II mission on March 18. This completes assembly of four of the five large structures that make up the core stage that will help send the first astronauts to lunar orbit on Artemis II.
The 66-foot forward assembly consists of the forward skirt, liquid oxygen tank and the intertank, which were mated earlier. Engineers inserted 360 bolts to connect the forward assembly to the liquid hydrogen tank to make up the bulk of the stage. Only the engine section, which is currently being outfitted and includes the main propulsion systems that connect to the four RS-25 engines, remains to be added to form the final core stage.
All parts of the core stage are manufactured by NASA and Boeing, the core stage lead contractor at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Currently, the team is building core stages for three Artemis missions. The first core stage is stacked with the rest of the SLS rocket, which will launch the Artemis I mission to the Moon this year. Together with its twin solid rocket boosters, the core stage will produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts, and supplies beyond Earth’s orbit to the Moon. The SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft form the foundation for Artemis missions and future deep space exploration.
Image Credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
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Welders inside a large liquid hydrogen tank for NASA's Space Launch System at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans are plugging holes left after the tank was assembled. Using frictional heating and forging pressure, friction stir welding produces high-strength bonds virtually free of defects.
The process transforms metals from a solid state into a "plastic-like" state and uses a rotating pin tool to soften, stir and forge a bond between two metal sections to form a uniform welded joint. At the beginning and end of each weld, holes remain where the rotating pin tool enters and exits the metal. Six 22-foot-tall barrels and two domed caps were joined together to create the qualification test article, which measures an astounding 27.5 feet in diameter and over 130 feet long.
Qualification test articles, like the one shown here, closely replicate flight hardware and are built using identical processing procedures. The liquid hydrogen tank, a liquid oxygen tank, four RS-25 engines and other elements form SLS's core stage, which also serves as the rocket's structural backbone.
SLS -- the most powerful rocket in the world -- along with NASA's Orion spacecraft will send astronauts deeper into space than ever before, including on the agency's journey to Mars.
For more information about SLS, click here.
The rocket engine with one of the most storied histories in spaceflight, the RS-25, is returning to space for a second act – this time to send humans on the Artemis missions to explore the Moon.
As the space shuttle main engine, the RS-25 has a proven record of launching 135 missions spanning over three decades. At the end of the shuttle program in 2011, 16 RS-25 engines that helped build NASA’s International Space Station and deploy the Hubble Space Telescope, among other achievements, were stored away.
When NASA began scouting engines to power America’s next super heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), the RS-25 offered an opportunity to forgo costs of developing a new engine, and the ability to leverage the assets, capabilities, and experience of the Space Shuttle Program.
Seen here in the RS-25 assembly deck at Aerojet Rocketdyne’s facility, located at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, are main engines 2057 and 2054, which will fly on the Artemis III crewed lunar mission.
Credit: Aerojet Rocketdyne
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Eight rocket motor segments for the first flight of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) are lined up in preparation for stacking at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. As each segment completed processing, workers moved them to the surge bay at Kennedy's Rotation, Processing, and Surge Facility. Each of the fully assembled, 177-foot-tall solid rocket boosters on SLS produce more than 3.6 million pounds of thrust and together provide more than 75% of the total thrust during the first two minutes of launch and flight. The booster segments will help power the first Artemis mission of NASA's Artemis program with the SLS rocket. NASA's Exploration Ground Systems team transported the motor segments to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), and will use a crane to lift the booster segments and stack them one by one on the mobile launcher. The bottom section of the boosters, known as the aft assemblies, were completed in November and moved to the VAB, and the first of the two pieces was placed on the mobile launcher Nov. 21. The boosters are the first elements of SLS to be installed on the mobile launcher ahead of the Artemis I launch. After booster stacking is complete, the core stage, which is undergoing final Green Run testing at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, will be delivered to Kennedy and moved to the VAB to continue rocket construction.
NASA is working to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024. SLS and Orion, along with the human landing system and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, are NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
Image Credit: NASA
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The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under Artemis. Astronauts on their first flight aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft will confirm all of the spacecraft’s systems operate as designed with crew aboard in the actual environment of deep space. Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
The unique Artemis II mission profile will build upon the uncrewed Artemis I flight test by demonstrating a broad range of SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion capabilities needed on deep space missions. This mission will prove Orion’s critical life support systems are ready to sustain our astronauts on longer duration missions ahead and allow the crew to practice operations essential to the success of Artemis III and beyond.
This official crew portrait shows NASA astronauts (left to right) Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel
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NASA's uncrewed Orion spacecraft reached the farthest distance from Earth it will travel during the Artemis I mission — 268,563 miles from our home planet — just after 3 p.m. CST. The spacecraft also captured imagery of Earth and the Moon together throughout the day, including of the Moon appearing to eclipse Earth.
Reaching the halfway point of the mission on Flight Day 13 of a 25.5 day mission, the spacecraft remains in healthy condition as it continues its journey in distant retrograde orbit, an approximately six-day leg of its larger mission thousands of miles beyond the Moon.
Image credit: NASA
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Crews from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, offload a transportation stand from NASA's Pegasus barge Saturday, Jan. 7. The barge ferried the stand from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it was used to transport the launch vehicle stage adapter (LVSA) of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for Artemis I.
The nearly 28-foot-tall LVSA is a cone-shaped element that connects the rocket’s core stage and the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) and partially covers the in-space stage's single RL10 engine. It is fully produced and manufactured at Marshall by Teledyne Brown Engineering, the LVSA lead contractor. The transportation stand is one of two at Marshall and will be used as teams continue to manufacture the LVSA for Artemis III. NASA and Teledyne Brown Engineering use the stands to maneuver the LVSA hardware from facility to facility, across the facility, and for application of the thermal protection system.
After unloading the transportation stand from Pegasus, teams at Marshall will load the Artemis III LVSA hardware onto the stand to transport it to the facility where the thermal protection system spray foam will be applied by hand. NASA and Teledyne Brown have already completed applying the thermal protection system spray foam to the LVSA for Artemis II.
Credits: NASA/Sam Lott and Brandon Hancock
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Teams from NASA and Northrop Grumman fire a ground-based version of a booster for the agency's SLS (Space Launch System) rocket June 26. Secured horizontally in a test stand at Northrop Grumman's test facility in Promontory, Utah, the single five-segment booster motor fired for more than 2 minutes and produced 3.9 million pounds of thrust. The booster for this test, known as Demonstration Motor-1 (DM-1), is the result of the Booster Obsolescence Life Extension (BOLE) project. This test was the first full-scale ground test of a new five-segment solid rocket motor.
Credit: Northrop Grumman/Dylan Baker
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While this may look like a futuristic tunnel to another world, it is really a look inside a nearly complete fuel tank for NASA’s powerful, new rocket -- the Space Launch System.
Once a final dome is added to the liquid hydrogen rocket fuel tank, shown here, it will come in at 27.5-feet in diameter and over 130-feet long, making it the largest major part of the SLS core stage.
SLS will take humans to destinations never explored by people before.
To read the full image caption, click here.
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These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights, click here.
NASA conducted the 10th certification test of an RS-25 engine June 8, continuing a critical hot fire series to facilitate production of new engines for future SLS (Space Launch System) missions to deep space. Operators on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, fired the RS-25 certification engine for more than 8 minutes (500 seconds), the same amount of time the engines must fire to help launch NASA’s SLS rocket on Artemis missions to the Moon in preparation for future journeys to Mars. The engine also fired as high as 113% power during the test, exceeding the 111% power level needed during launch and providing a margin of operational performance safety. NASA plans two additional tests to certify production of new RS-25 engines by lead contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne. Four RS-25 engines fire simultaneously to help launch each SLS rocket, producing up to 2 million pounds of combined thrust.
Image credit: NASA
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We are loving the view inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy in Florida!
NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft with its launch abort system was recently stacked atop the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket in High Bay 3 of the VAB. This milestone marks a huge step in the mission that will carry four astronauts on a 10-day mission around the Moon and back in early 2026.
Ahead of rolling out the integrated SLS rocket to the launch pad, teams will be conducting a series of verification tests. Follow along to stay up to date on all things #Artemis!
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The first two CubeSats are aboard for the Artemis I mission as secondary payloads that will conduct a range of science experiments and technology demonstrations in deep space.
In preparation for their missions, Lunar IceCube and Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout have been integrated with their dispensers and installed in the Orion stage adapter at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Housed in the spaceport’s Space Station Processing Facility, the Orion stage adapter connects the top of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to the Orion spacecraft. The small satellites, roughly the size of large shoeboxes and weighing no more than 30 pounds, enable science and technology experiments that may enhance our understanding of the deep space environment, expand our knowledge of the Moon and beyond, and demonstrate technology that could open up possibilities for future missions. The payloads will deploy from the rocket after the Orion spacecraft separates from the rocket's Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage that provides the propulsion to send Orion to the Moon.
Credit: NASA
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Happy international Moon day! Today marks the annual celebration of the Apollo 11 lunar landing on 20 July, in 1969. More than fifty years later, during the Artemis I mission on 28 November 2022, this image was captured by a camera placed on the tip of one of the European Service Module’s four solar array wings, part of the Orion spacecraft.
The frame shows the Orion spacecraft on the left with one solar wing extending from the European Service Module to the right, dividing Earth (above) and the Moon. The cones on the European Service Module are the thrusters for the engines the spacecraft has for propulsion. The smaller cones on the side, in groups of four are part of the reaction control system used to orient the spacecraft, and the larger ones facing the camera grouped by two are the auxiliary thrusters.
Artemis I is the first in a series of missions to propel humankind forward to the Moon and beyond. The Artemis programme aims to establish permanent stations and outposts in orbit around our natural satellite. During the Artemis I test flight, the Orion spacecraft flew without astronauts. NASA provided the rocket and the crew capsule and ESA the European Service Module – Orion's 'powerhouse’.
The test flight allowed mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to get a feel for the spacecraft and push it to the limits of its capabilities. To everyone's delight Orion exceeded all expectations. For the European experts who worked on the European Service Module, the mission was even more rewarding due to the live view of the commands provided by the cameras on board.
The primary purpose of the cameras was self-observation: to monitor the spacecraft on its two-week mission around the Moon. “As engineers we are lucky to have the livestream and high-quality photos, as they are rare, most satellites don’t take selfies,” says Thales Alenia Space’s Lorenzo Andrioli, “To see those images of Orion flying by the Moon and to think you have touched those components is a very special feeling.”
Orion was equipped with 16 strategically placed cameras across its structure, with one at the end of each of the four solar array wings. The wing cameras were especially versatile. The solar arrays were designed to swivel, pivot and rotate to capture as much sunlight as possible. During the test flight, they could also be repositioned to capture better views of the Moon. On occasion, the entire spacecraft was rotated to get extraordinary shots.
The European Service Module played a crucial role in enabling these photos. It consumed less fuel while also generating more electricity than required for the mission. The surplus of energy allowed for the repositioning of the spacecraft and solar wings.
Each operation in space requires close coordination between the spacecraft systems: electrical power, propulsion, thermal and data handling. Changing one parameter has immediate effects on the others, for example moving the solar panels would change the amount of electricity generated, and adjusting the spacecraft may necessitate the thermal team's preparation of heaters to maintain optimal operating temperatures.
With this resounding success, all is set for Artemis II which will see four astronauts orbit the Moon and return to Earth. NASA’s commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch, together with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen will embark on this exciting mission in 2024.
Credits: NASA
On May 24, 2022, the core stage production team moved the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket engine section for Artemis II to the core stage final integration area at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. While there, the engine section team is completing installation of the main propulsion systems, finishing integration of the electrical and avionics systems, and preparing for functional testing of the various systems. During final integration, the team also will install remaining internal thermal protection systems and prepare to position the engine section from vertical to horizontal so that it can be joined with the rest of the core stage. The engine section is located at the bottom of the core stage and includes the rocket's main propulsion systems that connect to the core stage's four RS-25 engines that will help launch the Artemis II lunar mission. This fall, the engine section will be horizontally integrated with the previously-joined forward assembly and liquid hydrogen tank to complete the core stage. NASA and core stage lead contractor Boeing are building core stages for the next three Artemis missions.
The 212-foot core stage with its RS-25 engines will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust at launch. With Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon and establish long-term exploration in preparation for missions to Mars. SLS and NASA's Orion spacecraft, along with the commercial human landing system and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, are NASA's backbone for deep space exploration. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
Image credit: NASA/Jared Lyons
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Members of the media visited the International Space Station Processing Facility "high bay" on August 11, 2017 to view the Space Launch System's Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS). Representative from NASA and Boeing were on hand to answer questions.
The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) is the first segment for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to arrive at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is currently in the Space Station Processing Facility. The ICPS will be located at the very top of the SLS, just below the Orion capsule. During Exploration Mission-1, NASA's first test mission of the SLS rocket and Orion, the ICPS, filled with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, will give Orion the big in-space push needed to fly beyond the Moon before returning to Earth. The ICPS was designed and built by ULA in Decatur, Alabama, and Boeing in Huntsville, Alabama.
(Photos by Michael Seeley / We Report Space)
NASA’s history-making Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has ended its mission at the Red Planet after surpassing expectations and making dozens more flights than planned. While the helicopter remains upright and in communication with ground controllers, imagery of its Jan. 18 flight sent to Earth this week indicates one or more of its rotor blades sustained damage during landing, and it is no longer capable of flight.
Originally designed as a technology demonstration to perform up to five experimental test flights over 30 days, the first aircraft on another world operated from the Martian surface for almost three years, performed 72 flights, and flew more than 14 times farther than planned while logging more than two hours of total flight time.
This enhanced color view of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was generated using data collected by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard the agency's Perseverance Mars rover on Aug. 2, 2023, the 871st Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The image was taken a day before the rotorcraft's 54th flight.
Image credit: NASA
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As NASA prepares for the first launch of Artemis I, the first mission of the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft to the Moon, one team will be there every step of the way: the aptly nicknamed "SLS Move Team."
Based out of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the move team ensures all the flight hardware for the SLS rocket’s core stage is safely and efficiently transported from the site where it was manufactured to various test facilities and -- ultimately -- to its future launch site. From the very beginning, the move team has been an integral part of the SLS Program.
In this image, NASA’s Ground Transportation team guides NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s completed core stage from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the agency’s Pegasus barge on Jan. 8. NASA’s Marine Transportation team and Pegasus crew then shipped the rocket stage to NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, for the core stage Green Run test series. The 212-foot-tall core stage is currently undergoing Green Run testing.
Image credit: NASA/Tyler Martin
Congratulations to the winners of NASA's seventh annual "Photographer of the Year" awards. Eric Bordelon and Michael DeMocker won second place in the category of Documentation for this beautiful image of a SLS (Space Launch System) rocket core stage at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
This photo shows NASA and Boeing, the SLS core stage lead contractor, preparing the SLS rocket core stage for shipment at Michoud. On July 6, 2024, NASA and Boeing moved the Artemis II rocket stage to Building 110. The core stage of SLS is the largest NASA has ever built by length and volume, and it was manufactured at Michoud using state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment. Designed and managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration. Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
Credits: NASA/Eric Bordelon & Michael DeMocker
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The core stage for NASA's first Artemis mission is on the move! Earlier this week, NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility rolled the 212-foot-tall Space Launch System rocket stage onto our Pegasus barge, which will ship it to NASA's Stennis Space Center for a comprehensive series of engineering tests called the Green Run. After Green Run is complete, the core stage will be sent across the Gulf of Mexico to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where it will join with SLS's giant boosters and the Orion spacecraft to launch into space on Artemis I!
Image credit: NASA
NASA cleared a milestone in preparation for Green Run testing of its Space Launch System (SLS) core stage with an Aug. 23/24 lift and installation of the core stage pathfinder simulator onto the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss. The lift and installation of the core stage pathfinder – a size and weight replica of the SLS core stage – is helping teams at Stennis prepare for the Green Run test series. For this test of the new core stage, Stennis will lift the flight core stage for Artemis 1, the first SLS mission into the stand. SLS and the new Orion spacecraft being built are the foundation for NASA's Artemis Program, which will send the first woman and next man to walk on the Moon by 2024.
Image credit: NASA/SSC
Happy Veterans Day!
For the first time in almost 40 years, a NASA human-rated rocket has completed all steps needed to clear a critical design review (CDR). The agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) is the first vehicle designed to meet the challenges of the journey to Mars and the first exploration class rocket since the Saturn V. The CDR provided a final look at the design and development of the integrated launch vehicle before full-scale fabrication begins.
Also as part of the CDR, the program concluded the core stage of the rocket and Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter will remain orange, the natural color of the insulation that will cover those elements, instead of painted white.
Image Credit: NASA/MSFC
(Artist concept updated Nov 12, 2015)
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As it soars off the launch pad for the Artemis I missions, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is powered by two solid rocket boosters. Critical parts of the booster will soon head to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for the Artemis I launch. Specialized transporters move each of the 10 solid rocket motor segments from the Northrop Grumman facility in Promontory Point, Utah, to a departure point where they will leave for NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The cross-country journey is an important milestone toward the first launch of NASA's Artemis lunar program.
Image credit: Northrop Grumman
A critical component needed for future testing in support of NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond recently arrived at the agency’s Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi.
The interstage simulator special test equipment arrived at Stennis on Sept. 21 via barge from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana, where it was fabricated. The simulator, 31 feet in diameter and 33 feet tall, will be used during Green Run testing of the new Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). EUS will fly on future Space Launch System (SLS) missions as NASA continues its mission to explore the universe for the benefit of all.
Here, the interstage simulator component to be used during Exploration Upper Stage testing for the Space Launch System rocket arrives at the B-2 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Sept. 21, 2022.
Image Credit: NASA
#MoontoMars #NASAMarshall #nasasls #artemis #NASA #NASAStennis #SLS #NASAMichoud
New Orleans is home to our NASA Michoud Assembly Facility, but it's also home to thousands of football fans from across the nation this weekend. 🏈
We welcome you all to NOLA with this stunning photo taken by one of our Michoud photographers last month of the Wolf Moon rising over the Superdome.
: NASA/Michael DeMocker
Download this image for yourself at images.nasa.gov
The NASA team is moving parts of the Space Launch System rocket to begin assembly of the forward, or upper part, of the rocket’s core stage for the Artemis II Moon mission. On March 19, the intertank was moved to the vertical assembly area at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the core stage is manufactured. The intertank flight hardware is part of the upper portion of the core stage that will help power Artemis II, the second flight of the deep space rocket and the first crewed lunar mission of NASA’s Artemis program.
Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #MAF #MichoudAssemblyFacility #Michoud #intertank
The last of four structural test articles for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) was loaded onto NASA's Pegasus barge Wednesday, June 26, 2019, at NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The barge will deliver the liquid oxygen (LOX) tank structural test article from Michoud to NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for critical structural testing. The liquid oxygen tank is one of two propellant tanks in the rocket's core stage that will produce more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help send Artemis 1, the first flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft and SLS, to the Moon. The nearly 70-foot-long test article is structurally identical to the flight version, which will hold 196,000 gallons of liquid oxygen super cooled to minus 297 degrees Fahrenheit.
NASA is working to land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with Orion and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts and supplies to the Moon on a single mission.
Image credit: NASA/Jude Guidry
NASA is moving forward with Space Launch System (SLS) production and assembly activities for future Artemis missions.
The agency is optimizing manufacturing capabilities by enabling SLS core stage lead contractor Boeing to use facilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to perform some core stage assembly and outfitting activities beginning with the Artemis III rocket. In tandem, teams will continue all core stage manufacturing activities at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
In this image, teams at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans move the engine section flight hardware to the agency’s Pegasus barge Sunday, Dec. 4. The barge will ferry the engine section of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for Artemis III to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Teams at Kennedy will finish outfitting the engine section, which comprises the tail-end of the 212-foot-tall core stage, before integrating it with the rest of the stage.
Image credit: NASA
#NASA #NASAMarshall #ArtemisI #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #exploration #rocket #artemis #ArtemisIII #Pegasus #Michoud
In 2025, Marshall Space Flight Center will be celebrating our 65th anniversary!
All year long, we will be showcasing the past, present, and future work at our center. From the Earth, to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Follow us and stay tuned!
In this image, the Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise is removed from the Marshall Center's Dynamic Test Stand following its first Mated Vertical Ground Vibration test (MVGVT) in 1978. The tests marked the first time ever that the entire shuttle complement (including Orbiter, external tank, and solid rocket boosters) were mated vertically.
Credits: NASA
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Engineers are welding the core stage structures for the Artemis III mission, which will land the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface, through a process called friction stir welding. Each of the structures for the core stage has rings that attach the pieces together to produce one stage during final assembly. The rings are trimmed down to 1/1000th of an inch at the ring machining center then sent to another part of the facility for the next phase of manufacturing. Assembling the 5.5-million-pound SLS rocket for the Artemis missions takes special tools and is a collaborative effort between NASA and Boeing, the lead contractor for the core stage.
Image Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #MichoudAssemblyFacility #MAF #Michoud