Late Saturday night, Technics at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida moved the main stage for NASA'S Second space launch system rocket in position between two solid fuel-fueled vehicle.
Working inside the iconic 52-storey vehicle assembly building, ground teams use heavy cranes to first raise the Butterscotch-orange core stage from its cavernous transfer aisle of the Vab, the middle lane between four rocket assembly bays of the building. The cranes then rotated the structure vertically, allowing workers to disconnect one of the cranes from the bottom of the rocket.
That left the rocket hanging on a 325-ton overhead crane, raising it over the transom to the northeast high bay of the building. The Boeing-Built core stage weighs about 94 tons (85 metric tons), measuring about 212 feet (65 meters) high, and contains 730,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant in Liftoff. This is the single biggest element for NASA Artemis II Missionended to cope with a crew of astronauts around the distant side of Moon As soon as possible.
Finally, the ground crews lowered the rocket between the twin solid rocket of the space system's space system that was already stacked on a mobile launch platform inside High Bay 3, where the Space Shuttle and Saturn V Rockets gathered for Apollo Lunar Missions.
On Sunday, teams inside the Vab connected the main stage to each booster on the forward and Aft-Bearing load points. After completing electrical and data connections, engineers will pay an adapter-shaped cone at the top of the main stage, followed by the upper phase of the rocket, another adapter ring, and finally the Orion Spacecraft that will be home to four-person Artemis II crew for their 10-day journey in deep space.
Caption: Four RS-25 engines left from NASA's Space Shuttle program will empower the SLS core stage.
Credit: In/Frank Michaux
By the motions
This will be NASA's first crewed flight of Artemis Program, aimed at going astronauts to the lunar south pole and will eventually build a sustainable human existence in the moon, with an eye towards future expeditions in Mars. The first crewed lunar landing of the program is pencil for the Artemis III mission, again using SLS and Orion, but adding a new piece: Spacex's The massive Starship Rocket will be used as a person with a Lunar Lander marked. Artemis II will not come, but it will bring people around the moon to the first time since 1972.
The main stage for Artemis II came from its factory in Louisiana last year, and NASA began the SLS Solid Rocket Boosters seller in November. Other recently done on the path to Artemis II include installing Orion SpaceCraft solar panels, and closeouts of the Kennedy Space Center Service Service Module with aerodynamic panels that will provide jettison to the launch.
Once next month, Orion Spacecraft will travel to another Kennedy facility for gasoline, then to another building to meet its launch of abortion system before moving to the vab for the rescue above the space launch system. Leading the Uncrewed Artemis I Mission in 2022, it took about eight months to complete these activities before Orion was delivered to the VAB, so it was fair to be skeptical of NASA's target launch date for Artemis II in April 2026, running years behind the schedule.
