The largest rocket section for NASA’s Artemis III mission arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 27. The SLS (Space Launch System) core stage traveled 900 miles on the Pegasus barge from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the stage is manufactured, to complete assembly of the massive rocket at NASA Kennedy. 

Teams will transport the top four-fifths of the 212-foot-long core stage, the section containing the liquid hydrogen tank, liquid oxygen tank, intertank, and forward skirt, on Tuesday, April 28 to NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building to join the previously delivered boat-tail and engine section in the facility’s High Bay 2 for outfitting and vertical integration to complete the full stage.  

Artemis III will launch crew aboard the Orion spacecraft on top of the SLS rocket to test rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and commercial spacecraft needed to land astronauts on the Moon.  

Watch a livestream of the unloading and transporting of the core stage to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy beginning at approximately 8 a.m. April 28.