View allAll Photos Tagged SpaceLaunchSystem
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
NASA’s Space Launch System standing tall at LC-39B, scheduled to send the Orion spacecraft to the Moon Monday, August 29. The 2-hour launch window for the #Artemis I mission opens at 8:33am (EDT)
#WeAreGoing
The last time humans flew to the Moon was December, 1972 - 53 years ago. This (Saturday) morning, NASA took one step closer to reseting that clock.
At 7am (ET), the Mobile Launcher emerged from the the VAB and the Artemis II SLS and Orion spacecraft began the trip to LC-39B.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman was on hand to introduce the Artemis II crew, Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, heroes all.
These are some seriously cool astronauts, all well-prepared and looking forward to an incredible journey to the Moon.
One postscript: Administrator Isaacman did a great job at the podium, keeping the focus on the astronauts and the thousands of people supporting the mission; and the astronauts seem to genuinely respect him and his spaceflight experience.
55 years ago, three astronauts embarked on their journey around the Moon during NASA's Apollo 10 mission! Left to right, are Eugene A. Cernan, lunar module pilot; John W. Young, command module pilot; and Thomas P. Stafford, commander. In the background is the Apollo 10 space vehicle on Pad B, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center developed the Saturn V rocket that launched the Apollo missions, including Apollo 10. Today, Marshall is playing a vital role in the Artemis program by developing NASA's Space Launch System rocket.
Image credit: NASA
#NASA #NASAMarshall #Apollo #Apollo10 #exploration #rocket #history #Artemis #SLS #SpaceLaunchSystem
To watch the full video, click here.
Animation depicting NASA’s Space Launch System, the world's most powerful rocket for a new era of human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit. With its unprecedented capabilities, SLS will launch astronauts in the agency’s Orion spacecraft on missions to explore multiple, deep-space destinations, including Mars. Traveling to deep space requires a large vehicle that can carry huge payloads, and future evolutions of SLS with the exploration upper stage and advanced boosters will increase the rocket’s lift capability and flexibility for multiple types of mission needs.
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Can you feel the ground rumbling? Wednesday marked the first full-scale booster test to support future flights of the SLS rocket beyond #Artemis III. You'll want the sound on to watch the highlights from the Sept. 2 Flight Support Booster-1 (FSB-1) test in Utah!
Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #solidrocketbooster
Technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, moved the largest piece of structural test hardware for America's new deep space rocket, the Space Launch System, from the factory to the dock where it was loaded onto NASA’s barge Pegasus Dec. 14, 2018. The liquid hydrogen tank test article will make its way up the river to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where dozens of hydraulic cylinders in Test Stand 4693 will push and pull on the giant tank, subjecting it to the same stresses and loads it will endure during liftoff and flight. The test hardware is structurally identical to the flight version of the liquid hydrogen tank that will comprise two-thirds of the core stage and hold 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen cooled to minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit.
Image credit: NASA/Steven Seipel
NASA's Pegasus barge made a brief stop to drop off supplies at NASA Michoud Assembly Facility earlier this week on its way to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The barge is transporting the launch vehicle stage adapter for NASA's Space Launch System rocket to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The launch vehicle stage adapter was manufactured at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and will be used for the first Artemis mission.
Image credit: NASA
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 NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The barge will deliver the liquid oxygen (LOX) tank structural test article from Michoud to NASA's 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
Engineers successfully fired a 2-foot-diameter, subscale solid rocket booster June 1, 2022, at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The test, conducted in Marshall’s East Test Area, produced 92,000 pounds of thrust and was done as part of the booster obsolescence and life extension (BOLE) program, providing an upgraded booster design for the evolved configuration of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for Artemis IX and beyond. The BOLE booster will be a larger and more powerful solid rocket motor to make the SLS rocket capable of sending heavier payloads to the Moon and beyond.
Image Credit: NASA/Samuel Lott
#MoontoMars #NASAMarshall #nasasls #artemis #NASA #NASAMarshall #MSFC #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #SpaceLaunchSystem
NASA marked a key milestone Feb. 18 with installation of RS-25 engine No. E20001, the first new production engine to help power the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket on future Artemis missions to the Moon.
The engine, built by lead SLS engines contractor L3Harris (formerly Aerojet Rocketdyne), was installed on the Fred Haise Test Stand in preparation for acceptance testing next month. It represents the first of 24 new flight engines being built for SLS flights, beginning with Artemis V.
In this image, teams at NASA Stennis deliver, lift, and install the first new production RS-25 engine on the Fred Haise Test Stand on Feb. 18.
Credit: NASA/Danny Nowlin
#NASAMarshall #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #exploration #rocket #Artemis #NASAStennis
The rocket that will launch NASA’s Orion spacecraft to the Moon with the European Service Module on its way to the launchpad in Florida, USA, for its first full test before the Artemis I launch later this year.
The Space Launch Systems rocket (SLS) left the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at around 23:00 CET (22:00 GMT) on 17 March on the start of its 6.5 km trip to Launchpad LC39B.
In the preceding months the Orion spacecraft with European Service Module had been placed on top of the rocket. The first Artemis mission will send Orion to the Moon and back, farther than any human-rated spacecraft has travelled before. ESA’s European Service Module is the powerhouse that fuels and propels Orion, and provides everything needed to keep astronauts alive with water, oxygen, power and temperature control.
Credits: ESA–A. Conigli
As NASA and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) prepare to announce the four astronauts who will venture around the Moon on Artemis II, teams at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans are working to prepare their ride. All five major elements of the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket are fully integrated. Watch as technicians line up the stage and insert 360 bolts to join the last major element to the rest of the previously assembled structure, and then move the 212-foot-tall core stage into position to prepare to install its four RS-25 engines. At launch the rocket’s core stage and its RS-25 engines, along with two solid rocket boosters, will produce more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send the Artemis II crew beyond Earth orbit to the Moon.
You can watch the Artemis II Crew Announcement event at 10 a.m. CDT on various NASA social media accounts, NASA TV, the NASA App, or the NASA Website.
Image credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon
#NASA #NASAMarshall #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #exploration #rocket #artemis #MichoudAssemblyFacility #ArtemisII #Astronauts
This week in 1961, Michoud Assembly Facility was selected as the production site for Saturn rockets. Here, in one of the initial assembly steps for the first stage of the Saturn IB rocket, Michoud workers position a “Spider Beam” to the central liquid-oxygen tank of the S-IB stage. Designed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and built by Chrysler Corp. at Michoud, the S-IB stage used eight H-1 engines to produce a combined thrust of 1.6 million pounds. Today, NASA’s Space Launch System rockets and Orion spacecraft for the first three Artemis missions are being built at Michoud. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage.
Image credit: NASA
NASA has taken a big step forward in how engineers will assemble and stack future SLS (Space Launch System) rockets for Artemis Moon missions inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The VAB’s High Bay 2 has been outfitted with new tooling to facilitate the vertical integration of the SLS core stage. That progress was on full display in mid-December when teams suspended the fully assembled core stage 225 feet in the air inside the high bay to complete vertical work before it is stacked on mobile launcher 1, allowing teams to continue solid rocket booster stacking simultaneously inside High Bay 3 for Artemis II. With the move to High Bay 2, technicians now have 360-degree tip to tail access to the core stage, both internally and externally.
Credit: NASA
#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAKennedy #ArtemisII #Artemis #SpaceLaunchSystem #SLS #NASASLS
A Super Blue Moon rises above the Mississippi River and the Crescent City Connection Bridge in New Orleans, Aug. 30. The full moon is “super” because it’s slightly closer to Earth and “blue” because it’s the second full moon in a month. About 25% of all full moons are supermoons, but only 3% of full moons are blue moons. The next super blue moons will occur in a pair in January and March 2037. New Orleans is home to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, where stages for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and structures for Orion spacecraft are produced for the Artemis missions.
Image Credit: NASA
#MoontoMars #NASAMarshall #nasasls #artemis #NASA #NASAMichoud #SLS #Moon #NASA #Supermoon #FullMoon #BlueMoon #FullBlueSuperMoon #NASAMoon
Monday morning view of the #SpaceLaunchSystem and Orion spacecraft. The #artemis mission launch window was scheduled from 8:33am to 10:33am, but the launch was called off because of issues with one of the rocket engines.
The next possible launch attempt is Friday, September 2.
#WeAreGoing
The MVP (Most Valuable Puppy) award goes to… Snoopy! Snoopy recently traveled beyond the Moon and back to Earth as the #Artemis I zero-gravity indicator.
Zero gravity indicators are small items carried aboard spacecraft that provide a visual indicator when a spacecraft has reached the weightlessness of microgravity. NASA has held an association with Snoopy since the Apollo Era—the character has contributed to the excitement for NASA human spaceflight missions, helping inspire generations to dream big, and is a symbol of NASA's safety culture and mission success.
Artemis Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, in the center, performs the official turnover of Snoopy to Melissa Menta, far left, senior vice president with Peanuts Worldwide LLC, inside Launch Control Center Firing Room 1 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 18, 2023. From left, behind Charlie are Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager; Glenn Chin, deputy manager, Orion Production Operations Office, Exploration Ground Systems; and Kevin Ash, payload and flight crew equipment project lead with Jacobs.
Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
#PuppyBowl #SuperBowl #Artemis #ArtemisI #Marshall #Space #NASASLS #Orion #NASA
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, middle, and Dr. Quincy K. Brown, front right, senior policy advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, are shown the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket by Jennifer Boland-Masterson, left, director of manufacturing and site leader at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility for Boeing, during a March 31 visit to Michoud in New Orleans. They are accompanied by Michoud Facility Director Lonnie Dutreix, back right. The 212-foot-tall core stage and its four RS-25 engines will help power NASA’s Artemis II flight test, the first crewed Artemis mission that will send four astronauts around the Moon and return them home to test the spacecraft in deep space ahead of lunar surface missions. Teams at Michoud recently integrated the last of the five major core stage structures and unboxed the four RS-25 engines. NASA and Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, along with Aerojet Rocketdyne, the RS-25 engine lead contractor, are preparing to install the engines to the base of the rocket’s core stage. The core stage and its RS-25 engines produce more than 2 million pounds of thrust at launch.
NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. 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 in a single mission.
Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
#NASA #NASAMarshall #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #exploration #rocket #artemis #MichoudAssemblyFacility #ArtemisII
The rocket that will launch NASA’s Orion spacecraft to the Moon with the European Service Module on its way to the launchpad in Florida, USA, for its first full test before the Artemis I launch later this year.
The Space Launch Systems rocket (SLS) left the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at around 23:00 CET (22:00 GMT) on 17 March on the start of its 6.5 km trip to Launchpad LC39B.
In the preceding months the Orion spacecraft with European Service Module had been placed on top of the rocket. The first Artemis mission will send Orion to the Moon and back, farther than any human-rated spacecraft has travelled before. ESA’s European Service Module is the powerhouse that fuels and propels Orion, and provides everything needed to keep astronauts alive with water, oxygen, power and temperature control.
Credits: ESA–A. Conigli
On September 8, 2018, the ML moved into High Bay 3 in NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building, where it will stay 7 months for fit tests.
This is a version of my fish-eye shot, taken through 3 filters in COlor Efex4, the most notable one being the solarization filter.
(Pics: Michael Seeley / We Report Space)
The date is set. NASA and its partners, @Boeing and @AerojetRocketdyne, will conduct a "hot fire" of the core stage for NASA's Space Launch System rocket on Saturday, Jan. 16 at @NASAStennis. The hot fire test is the eighth and final test of the SLS Green Run test series. Together with the previously completed #NASAMarshall structural test campaign and RS-25 engine test series at Stennis, Green Run testing verifies the core stage and its engines are ready for NASA's Artemis missions to the Moon. You can watch the broadcast LIVE on NASA TV and on the agency's website on Saturday.
Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #SSC #StennisSpaceCenter
NASA’s Super Guppy arrives in Alabama on Nov. 6, 2023, carrying the heat shield that protected Orion’s crew module during its flight on Artemis I. The one-of-a-kind, turboprop-powered aircraft ferried the heat shield from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Huntsville Regional Airport for transport to the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Technicians at Marshall will use the center’s specialized milling tool to remove the heat shield’s outer layer of ablative material, a protective coating called Avcoat, as part of routine post-flight analysis.
Image Credit: NASA
#NASA #NASAMarshall #SLS #SpaceLaunchSystem #NASAKennedy #SuperGuppy #Artemis #ArtemisI
A significant piece of hardware for NASA’s Artemis II mission arrived on Aug. 19 to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to complete final stacking operations. A semitrailer transported NASA’s Orion stage adapter nearly 700 miles from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA Marshall built and tested the Orion stage adapter which connects to the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage to the Orion spacecraft. A diaphragm within the adapter protects Orion from flammable gases, such as hydrogen, generated during launch.
Here, technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida complete routine inspections on the Artemis II Orion stage adapter on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. The adapter was unloaded inside the spaceport’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility to undergo CubeSat integration following its arrival from the NASA Marshall.
Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett
#Artemis #NASAMarshall #Space #NASASLS #NASA #Artemis #ArtemisII
Final after adjusting for camera/lens profile and cropping. Canon 5DM4 with Sigma ART 14mm f/1.8 at f/16 305s ISO 200. Post-processing in LR Classic.
#Orion has reached the upper limits of Earth’s atmosphere, generating heat as it passes through at about 20,000 mph (32,000 kph). The flight control team in Mission Control will lose contact with Orion for approximately 2.5 minutes as a superheated plasma forms around the capsule, blocking signals in and out. At the hottest period of its return through Earth’s atmosphere, its heat shield will experience temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius). Orion will then jettison its forward bay cover to expose and deploy the eight parachutes that will slow Orion from 300 mph (480 kph) to about 20 mph (30 kph) for its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Engineers with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems complete stacking operations on the twin SLS (Space Launch System) solid rocket boosters for Artemis II by integrating the nose cones atop the forward assemblies inside the Vehicle Assembly Building’s High Bay 3 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. During three months of stacking operations, technicians used a massive overhead crane to lift 10 booster segments – five segments per booster – and aerodynamic nose cones into place on mobile launcher 1. The twin solid boosters will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.
Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
#NASA #space #moon #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #artemis #ArtemisII
Two additional secondary payloads that will travel to deep space on Artemis I, the first flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, are ready for launch.
The Team Miles and EQUilibriUm Lunar-Earth point 6U Spacecraft (EQUULEUS) CubeSats are tucked into dispensers and installed in the Orion stage adapter the ring that connects Orion to the SLS rocket. They are joining five other secondary payloads that were recently installed. These small satellites, known as CubeSats, will conduct a variety of science experiments and technology demonstrations. The CubeSats will deploy after the Orion spacecraft separates from SLS.
In this image, members of the EQUULEUS (EQUilibriUm Lunar-Earth point 6U Spacecraft) team prepare their CubeSat to be loaded in the Space Launch System’s Orion stage adapter for launch on the Artemis I mission. This CubeSat, developed jointly by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the University of Tokyo, will help scientists understand the radiation environment in the region of space around Earth called the plasmasphere.
Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #JAXA #cubesat
The Orion spacecraft with integrated European Service Module sit atop the Space Launch System, imaged at sunrise at historic Launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA on 27 August.
The Flight Readiness Review has deemed the trio GO for launch, marking the dawn of a new era in space exploration.
The first in a series of missions that will return humans to the Moon, including taking the first European, Artemis I is scheduled for launch no earlier than Monday 29 August, at 14:33 CEST.
This mission will put NASA’s Orion spacecraft and ESA’s European Service Module to the test during a journey beyond the Moon and back. No crew will be on board Orion this time, and the spacecraft will be controlled by teams on Earth.
The crew module, however, won’t be empty. Two mannequins, named Helga and Zohar, will occupy the passenger seats. Their female-shaped plastic bodies are filled with over 5600 sensors each to measure the radiation load during their trip around the Moon. The specially trained woolly astronaut, Shaun the Sheep, has also been assigned a seat.
The spacecraft will enter lunar orbit using the Moon’s gravity to gain speed and propel itself almost half a million km from Earth – farther than any human-rated spacecraft has ever travelled.
The second Artemis mission will see four astronauts travel around the Moon on a flyby voyage around our natural satellite.
Mission duration depends on the launch date and even time. It will last between 20 to 40 days, depending on how many orbits of the Moon mission designers decide to make.
This flexibility in mission length is necessary to allow the mission to end as intended with a splashdown during daylight hours in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, USA.
Two more dates are available if a launch on 29 August is not possible. The Artemis Moon mission can also be launched on 2 September and 5 September. Check all the possible launch options on ESA’s Orion blog.
Orion is the only spacecraft capable of human spaceflight outside Earth orbit and high-speed reentry from the vicinity of the Moon. More than just a crew module, Orion includes the European Service Module (ESM), the powerhouse that fuels and propels Orion.
ESM provides for all astronauts’ basic needs, such as water, oxygen, nitrogen, temperature control, power and propulsion. Much like a train engine pulls passenger carriages and supplies power, the European Service Module will take the Orion capsule to its destination and back.
Watch launch coverage on ESA Web TV starting at 12:30 CEST here. Follow @esaspaceflight for updates and live Twitter coverage.
Credits: ESA-S. Corvaja
Technicians are manufacturing NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) core stage for the Artemis II lunar mission at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The core stage for the deep space rocket consists of two huge propellant tanks, four RS-25 engines, and miles of cabling for the avionics systems and flight computers. All the main core stage structures for Artemis II, the first mission with astronauts, have been built and are being outfitted with electronics, feedlines, propulsion systems, and other components. Technicians are currently wiring and performing functional tests on the avionics inside both the forward skirt and intertank sections. The engine section – the most complicated part of the stage – is in production assembly.
Image Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #KennedySpaceCenter #KSC
Thursday (8/25) sunset captured from Kennedy Space Center’s LC-39B as NASA’s Space Launch System (“SLS”) and the Orion spacecraft await the scheduled 8/29 launch of the #Artemis1 mission. The first launch attempt would end in a scrub. The next attempt is scheduled for Saturday 9/3.
#WeAreGoing
Technicians are preparing to connect two major parts of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s Artemis II core stage. On Jan. 30, technicians moved the largest part of the stage, the 130-foot liquid hydrogen tank to the vertical assembly area at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility. Here, it will be prepared for joining with the 66-foot forward assembly.
The forward assembly comprised of the joined forward skirt, intertank, and liquid oxygen tank completed construction and was transported to the final assembly area inside the factory on Jan. 10. Technicians will move the liquid hydrogen tank back to this final assembly where Boeing, the lead core stage contractor, will join the two structures. This will complete construction of most of the core stage that will launch the first crew on the Artemis II mission.
Only the engine section, the fifth piece of the stage, will need to be added to complete the Artemis II core stage. The engine section is one of the most complex parts of the stage. It includes the main propulsion system that connects to the four RS-25 engines that are built by Aerojet Rocketdyne and are assembled and stored at their facility at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The engines will be the last items installed on the stage. During launch, more than 700,000 gallons of propellant flows from the core stage tanks to the engines that produce more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help launch the SLS rocket.
The core stage serves as the backbone of the rocket, supporting the weight of the payload, upper stage, and Orion crew vehicle, as well as the thrust of its four RS-25 engines and two five-segment solid rocket boosters attached to the engine and intertank sections. The Artemis II mission will help NASA prepare for later Artemis missions that will enable the first woman and first person of color to land on the Moon.
Image Credit: NASA/Jared Lyons
#MoontoMars #NASAMarshall #nasasls #artemis #NASA
The Orion spacecraft with integrated European Service Module sit atop the Space Launch System, imaged at sunrise at historic Launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA on 27 August.
The Flight Readiness Review has deemed the trio GO for launch, marking the dawn of a new era in space exploration.
The first in a series of missions that will return humans to the Moon, including taking the first European, Artemis I is scheduled for launch no earlier than Monday 29 August, at 14:33 CEST.
This mission will put NASA’s Orion spacecraft and ESA’s European Service Module to the test during a journey beyond the Moon and back. No crew will be on board Orion this time, and the spacecraft will be controlled by teams on Earth.
The crew module, however, won’t be empty. Two mannequins, named Helga and Zohar, will occupy the passenger seats. Their female-shaped plastic bodies are filled with over 5600 sensors each to measure the radiation load during their trip around the Moon. The specially trained woolly astronaut, Shaun the Sheep, has also been assigned a seat.
The spacecraft will enter lunar orbit using the Moon’s gravity to gain speed and propel itself almost half a million km from Earth – farther than any human-rated spacecraft has ever travelled.
The second Artemis mission will see four astronauts travel around the Moon on a flyby voyage around our natural satellite.
Mission duration depends on the launch date and even time. It will last between 20 to 40 days, depending on how many orbits of the Moon mission designers decide to make.
This flexibility in mission length is necessary to allow the mission to end as intended with a splashdown during daylight hours in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, USA.
Two more dates are available if a launch on 29 August is not possible. The Artemis Moon mission can also be launched on 2 September and 5 September. Check all the possible launch options on ESA’s Orion blog.
Orion is the only spacecraft capable of human spaceflight outside Earth orbit and high-speed reentry from the vicinity of the Moon. More than just a crew module, Orion includes the European Service Module (ESM), the powerhouse that fuels and propels Orion.
ESM provides for all astronauts’ basic needs, such as water, oxygen, nitrogen, temperature control, power and propulsion. Much like a train engine pulls passenger carriages and supplies power, the European Service Module will take the Orion capsule to its destination and back.
Watch launch coverage on ESA Web TV starting at 12:30 CEST here. Follow @esaspaceflight for updates and live Twitter coverage.
Credits: ESA-S. Corvaja
Artemis I is the test flight of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft. This mission will prepare NASA to send the first woman and the first person of color to the Moon. Testing of the rocket, systems, and teams had to be done to prepare SLS for liftoff. Watch to learn how NASA engineers and technicians put SLS to the test before launch day.
Image Credit: NASA
#NASA #NASAMarshall #Artemis #NASA #SLS #SpaceLaunchSystem #NASASLS
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).
In this aerial view, teams with Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) transport the agency’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) core stage to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, after it completed the journey from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans aboard the Pegasus barge. In the coming months, SLS will be prepared for integration atop the mobile launcher ahead of the Artemis II launch.
Credit: NASA/Jamie Peer and Michael Downs
#Artemis #NASAMarshall #Space #NASASLS #NASA #NASAMichoud #NASAKennedy
As part of the Artemis program, NASA is returning astronauts to the Moon where we will prepare for human exploration of Mars. Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, experts from NASA, industry, and academia are pioneering methods to print the rocket parts that could power those journeys.
NASA’s Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology project, or RAMPT, is advancing development of an additive manufacturing technique to 3D print rocket engine parts using metal powder and lasers. The method, called blown powder directed energy deposition, could bring down costs and lead times for producing large, complex engine components like nozzles and combustion chambers. Prior developments in additive manufacturing did not have the large-scale capabilities this emerging technology provides.
The printing method injects metal powder into a laser-heated pool of molten metal, or melt pool. The blown powder nozzle and laser optics are integrated into a print-head. This print-head is attached to a robot and moves in a pattern determined by a computer building one layer at a time. The fabrication method has many advantages, including the ability to produce very large pieces – limited only by the size of the room in which they are created. It can also be used to print very complex parts, including engine nozzles with internal coolant channels. Rocket engine nozzles that contain internal coolant channels run cryogenic propellant through the channels to help keep the nozzle at safe temperatures.
Blown powder directed energy deposition can produce large structures – such as these engine nozzles – cheaper and quicker than traditional fabrication techniques.
Image credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #3dprinting
NASA’s Artemis campaign will send astronauts, payloads, and science experiments into deep space on NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) super heavy-lift Moon rocket. Starting with Artemis IV, the Orion spacecraft and its astronauts will be joined by other payloads atop an upgraded version of the SLS, called Block 1B. SLS Block 1B will deliver initial elements of a lunar space station designed to enable long term exploration of the lunar surface and pave the way for future journeys to Mars. To fly these advanced payloads, engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are building a cone-shaped adapter that is key to SLS Block 1B.
The payload adapter, nestled within the universal stage adapter sitting atop the SLS Block 1B's exploration upper stage, acts as a connecting point to secure a large payload that is co-manifested -- or flying along with -- the Orion spacecraft. The adapter consists of eight composite panels with an aluminum honeycomb core and two aluminum rings.
In this image, the PLA engineering development unit is installed into the 4697-test stand at NASA Marshall for structural testing. It was then attached to the large cylindrical structure which simulates the Exploration Upper Stage interface. Load lines were then connected to the top of the PLA. The testing demonstrated that it can handle up to three times the expected load.
Credit: NASA/Samuel Lott
#NASA #space #moon #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #artemis
Human Spaceflight image of the week:
NASA’s powerful Space Launch System rocket is a few steps closer to launching the Orion spacecraft now that its liquid propellant tanks are ready for testing.
Assembled by the world’s largest robotic rocket welder at NASA’s Michoud facility in New Orleans, USA, the liquid oxygen tank seen here is ready for qualification, while the remaining three tanks are being processed.
The tanks must prove they can do exactly what they were designed to do as well as pass structural testing. At NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, they will be strapped to the engines and fired to check their performance under launch conditions.
The liquid oxygen and hydrogen tanks hold over 2.6 million litres of propellant to power the rocket’s core stage that is comprised of four RS-25 engines and two solid rocket boosters.
Every bit of that thrust will be needed to propel the Orion spacecraft beyond low orbit to the Moon and beyond, for which ESA is contributing the European Service Module (ESM).
Once in orbit, the ESM will provide the spacecraft with electricity, water, oxygen and nitrogen as well as temperature control. A propulsion qualification module is being tested at the White Sands Test Facility in the US.
NASA’s uncrewed Exploration Mission-1 will be launched from the historic pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, sending Orion some 70 000 km beyond the Moon before it returns to Earth.
Credit: NASA Michoud–J. Guidry
Skywatchers, this is your last chance to see a Supermoon this year!
The next full Moon, also known as the Beaver Moon, will occur on Nov. 15, starting at 4:29 p.m. EST. The term “supermoon” was coined in 1979 and occurs when a full Moon coincides with its closest approach to Earth - making it appear bigger and brighter than usual.
Image Credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAMichoud #Moon #Supermoon #FullMoon #NASAMoon
At the heart of future rocket engines lifting off to the Moon or Mars could be a 3D printed combustion chamber. Multiple NASA centers partnered with Virgin Orbit to develop and test a uniquely manufactured rocket part.
Virgin Orbit air launches rockets carrying small satellites to space. The company partnered with NASA experts in combustion and additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; Glenn Research Center in Cleveland; and Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Their goal: to create a 3D printed combustion chamber that combines multiple materials and takes advantage of cutting-edge manufacturing processes.
Here, Engineers test-fire a 3D-printed rocket engine combustion chamber at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Image Credit: NASA/Virgin Orbit
Buildup of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the Artemis III lunar mission has started at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, even as NASA prepares for the launch of the Artemis II mission, the second Artemis mission in NASA’s efforts to return humans to the Moon and eventually land on Mars.
The Artemis III SLS engine section and boat-tail – which protects the engines during launch – moved from the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA Kennedy to the mammoth Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in late July, just a few feet from where the Artemis II SLS is mostly stacked and undergoing integrated testing and checkouts.
In this image, teams from Kennedy lift NASA’s integrated Artemis III SLS core stage engine section with its boat-tail inside the center’s Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. Shown inside the facility’s High Bay 2 for processing, the engine section is one the most complex and intricate parts of the rocket stage that will help power the Artemis missions to the Moon.
Credits: NASA/Cory Huston
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NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) core stage pathfinder is positioned in the B-2 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The Pathfinder is the same shape, size and weight (without propellants loaded) as the actual SLS core stage flight hardware. Stennis work crews used it in August to train and practice handling and lifting techniques needed for the core stage flight hardware when it arrives at Stennis for testing in 2020.
Image Credit: NASA
Learn more about the Space Launch System
Sunday morning views of NASA’s Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft.
Teams are progressing toward a 1:04am (ET) Wednesday launch.
In two of the photos, you can see some people at the base of the rocket for scale, as post-hurricane work on the rocket appears to be progressing.
Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program lift the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) core stage for the Artemis II mission from horizonal to vertical inside the transfer aisle at the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. The one-of-a kind lifting beam is designed to move the core stage from the transfer aisle to High Bay 2 where it will remain while teams stack the two solid rocket boosters for the SLS core stage.
Credit: NASA/Adeline Morgan
#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAKennedy #ArtemisII #Artemis #SpaceLaunchSystem #SLS #NASASLS #EGS #ExplorationGroundSystems
The Orion spacecraft with integrated European Service Module sit atop the Space Launch System, imaged at sunrise at historic Launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA on 27 August.
The Flight Readiness Review has deemed the trio GO for launch, marking the dawn of a new era in space exploration.
The first in a series of missions that will return humans to the Moon, including taking the first European, Artemis I is scheduled for launch no earlier than Monday 29 August, at 14:33 CEST.
This mission will put NASA’s Orion spacecraft and ESA’s European Service Module to the test during a journey beyond the Moon and back. No crew will be on board Orion this time, and the spacecraft will be controlled by teams on Earth.
The crew module, however, won’t be empty. Two mannequins, named Helga and Zohar, will occupy the passenger seats. Their female-shaped plastic bodies are filled with over 5600 sensors each to measure the radiation load during their trip around the Moon. The specially trained woolly astronaut, Shaun the Sheep, has also been assigned a seat.
The spacecraft will enter lunar orbit using the Moon’s gravity to gain speed and propel itself almost half a million km from Earth – farther than any human-rated spacecraft has ever travelled.
The second Artemis mission will see four astronauts travel around the Moon on a flyby voyage around our natural satellite.
Mission duration depends on the launch date and even time. It will last between 20 to 40 days, depending on how many orbits of the Moon mission designers decide to make.
This flexibility in mission length is necessary to allow the mission to end as intended with a splashdown during daylight hours in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, USA.
Two more dates are available if a launch on 29 August is not possible. The Artemis Moon mission can also be launched on 2 September and 5 September. Check all the possible launch options on ESA’s Orion blog.
Orion is the only spacecraft capable of human spaceflight outside Earth orbit and high-speed reentry from the vicinity of the Moon. More than just a crew module, Orion includes the European Service Module (ESM), the powerhouse that fuels and propels Orion.
ESM provides for all astronauts’ basic needs, such as water, oxygen, nitrogen, temperature control, power and propulsion. Much like a train engine pulls passenger carriages and supplies power, the European Service Module will take the Orion capsule to its destination and back.
Watch launch coverage on ESA Web TV starting at 12:30 CEST here. Follow @esaspaceflight for updates and live Twitter coverage.
Credits: ESA-S. Corvaja
Artist concept of SLS launching.
Image credit: NASA
Original image:
www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/multimedia/gallery/s...
More about SLS:
www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html
Space Launch System Flickr photoset:
www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/sets/72157627559536895/
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Exploration Ground Systems teams NASA's Kennedy Space Center recently mated the Spider to the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage for @NASAArtemis II.
The Spider, held up by the Transportation Integration Fixture, attaches to the top of core stage and is the connection point for lifting operations with the Vehicle Assembly Building high bay crane.
In this image, the Artemis II core stage in the Vehicle Assembly Building transfer aisle with the Spider affixed.
Credit: NASA
#NASA #KennedySpaceCenter #Artemis #ArtemisII #SpaceLaunchSystem #Rocket #Launch #Moon #NASAMarshall #SLS #NASASLS #NASAArtemis #Space #SpaceExploration
The Artemis II rocket has reached its launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States, ready for a historic journey. Over the weekend, engineers slowly and carefully rolled the nearly 100-metre-tall Space Launch System rocket from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39B. The 6.5-km journey took around 12 hours and was carried out using NASA’s crawler-transporter, which has been moving rockets to launch pads for over 50 years.
Standing nearly 100 m tall, the Space Launch System will weigh approximately 2.6 million kg once fully fuelled and ready for liftoff. At its top sits the Orion spacecraft, bearing the ESA and NASA logos and designed to carry four astronauts on a 10-day lunar flyby mission. Artemis II will be the first crewed flight of the Artemis programme and the first time humans have ventured towards the Moon in over 50 years.
Their journey depends on our European Service Module, built by industry from more than 10 countries across Europe. This powerhouse will take over once Orion separates from the rocket, supplying electricity from its four seven-metre long solar arrays, providing air and water for the crew, and performing key propulsion burns during the mission, including the critical trans-lunar injection that sends the spacecraft on its trajectory towards the Moon.
European engineers will be at mission control around the clock, monitoring operations from ESA’s ESTEC site in the Netherlands and alongside NASA teams in the Mision Evaluation Room at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The European Service Module’s main engine carries a unique legacy. Originally flown on six Space Shuttle missions between 2000 and 2002, the engine was refurbished and tested after two decades in storage and installed on the second European Service Module at Airbus in Bremen, Germany, giving this historic piece of hardware a new role in deep-space exploration.
The next major milestone is the wet dress rehearsal, during which teams will practise fuelling the rocket and running through the launch countdown, bringing Artemis II one step closer to launch.
Credits: ESA-S. Corvaja