Artemis 1 Crew Module and Service Module Stacking

The Orion crew module for Artemis 1 is lifted by crane on July 16, 2019, in the high bay inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew module is being moved to the final assembly and test cell and work will begin to secure it atop the service module. The Orion spacecraft is being prepared for its uncrewed test flight atop NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Artemis 1 is the first test flight of the SLS and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system. Orion will travel thousands of miles beyond the Moon during a mission that will test its systems in space. The spacecraft will return to Earth and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean where it will be retrieved and transported back to Kennedy.

The Orion crew module for Artemis 1 is lifted by crane on July 16, 2019, in the high bay inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew module is being moved to the final assembly and test cell and work will begin to secure it atop the service module. The Orion spacecraft is being prepared for its uncrewed test flight atop NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Artemis 1 is the first test flight of the SLS and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system. Orion will travel thousands of miles beyond the Moon during a mission that will test its systems in space. The spacecraft will return to Earth and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean where it will be retrieved and transported back to Kennedy.

Photographer NASA/Ben Smegelsky
OrionArtemis 1crew moduleservice modulestackingNeil Armstrong Operations and Checkout BuildingO Chigh bayMoon to Marsexploration