![]() ![]() NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems team based at KSC already has the mobile launcher used on Artemis I back at the VAB, and work needs to be done on Launch Pad 39-B to build out an emergency exit system and install a new liquid hydrogen tank. The human factor also requires NASA to enhance the launch site for the next SLS rocket. Reuse on the Orion capsules will increase from mission to mission across the Artemis program in an effort by Orion contractor Lockheed Martin to reduce costs. Since it’s flying with living, breathing passengers this time, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to sign off on environmental control and life support systems before flight. including avionic components for guidance navigation and control, radio communications antennas and transponders as well as the video processing unit. While the Orion crew capsule for Artemis II has been at KSC for some time, it awaits the transfer of some parts that flew on Artemis I. ![]() The segments for the two solid rocket boosters from Northrop Grumman await travel by train from Utah and are just awaiting the call from NASA before shipment.Ĭombined, the core stage and solid rocket boosters made the SLS for Artemis I the most powerful rocket to ever successfully achieve orbit generating 8.8 million pounds of thrust and sending the uncrewed Orion capsule on its multiweek mission to the moon. ![]() “From there, we will attach the four RS-25 engines and perform final testing before our targeted delivery of the integrated core stage to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center by mid-year.” “We are prepping Core Stage 2 for the integration of the engine section,” the company said in an emailed statement. 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.Īll 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.īoeing, the core stage main contractor, is putting the final touches for the Artemis II core stage at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Engineers inserted 360 bolts to connect the forward assembly to the liquid hydrogen tank to make up the bulk of the stage. The 66-foot forward assembly consists of the forward skirt, liquid oxygen tank and the intertank, which were mated earlier. 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. 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, 2022. ![]()
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