NASA Artemis II Moon Rocket Assembly Updates | Kennedy Space Center

NASA Artemis II Moon Rocket Assembly Updates | Kennedy Space Center

The NASA Space Launch System's two solid rocket boosters for the Artemis II mission stand one aft assembly and one segment tall inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems transport lower the agency’s 212-foot-tall Space Launch System (SLS) core stage into High Bay 2 at the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. The one-of-a kind lifting beam is designed to lift the core stage from the transfer aisle to High Bay 2 where it will remain while teams stack the two solid rocket boosters on top of mobile launcher 1 for the SLS core stage. Boeing and their sub-contractor Futuramic refurbished High Bay 2 to increase efficiencies while processing core stages for Artemis II and beyond.

Over the last month, NASA's Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) team has made significant progress stacking NASA's Space Launch System solid rocket boosters for the Artemis II mission. Now, both boosters stand one aft assembly and one segment tall inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Comprising 10 segments total—five segments for each booster—the SLS solid rocket boosters arrived via train to NASA Kennedy in September 2023 from Northrop Grumman’s manufacturing facility in Utah. The booster segments underwent processing in the spaceport’s Rotation, Processing and Surge Facility before being transferred to the NASA’s iconic VAB for stacking operations.

The first components of the Artemis II Moon rocket to be stacked, the solid rocket boosters will help support the remaining rocket segments and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly. At launch, the 177-foot-tall twin solid rocket boosters provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.

Additionally, EGS technicians inside the 525-foot-tall facility used an overhead crane to transport the agency’s 212-foot-tall Space Launch System (SLS) core stage into High Bay 2 at the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. The one-of-a kind lifting beam is designed to lift the core stage from the transfer aisle to High Bay 2 where it will remain while teams stack the two solid rocket boosters on top of mobile launcher 1 for the SLS core stage. Workers then installed the right aft assembly, placing the core stage carefully onto the 380-foot-tall structure used to process, assemble, and launch the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft.

Artemis II will launch no earlier than April 2026.

For more information about SLS, visit: 

https://www.nasa.gov/sls

Check the NASA Artemis II Mission page for updates:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Image Dates: Dec. 11-Jan. 11, 2025

#NASA #ESA #CSA #Space #Moon #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIIMission #ArtemisII #SLSRocket #CoreStage #SRB #SolidRocketBoosters #Astronauts #DeepSpace #MoonToMars #Science #SpaceExploration #HumanSpaceflight #VAB #EGS #KSC #NASAKennedy #MerrittIsland #Spaceport #Florida #UnitedStates #Canada #Europe #STEM #Education