NASA has removed scaffolding around the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage for Artemis I and is preparing it for shipping. The agencey’s Pegasus barge will carry the stage from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. There, the Artemis rocket stage will be loaded into the B-2 Test Stand for the core stage Green Run test series. Assembly and integration of the core stage and its four RS-25 engines has been a collaborative, multistep process for NASA and its partners Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, and Aerojet Rocketdyne, the RS-25 engines lead contractor. NASA and the contractor team used the scaffolding positioned around the 212-foot core stage to assess the stage’s inside and check out the electronic systems distributed throughout the stage, including avionics, flight computers and propulstion systems, that will enable the stage to operate during launch and flight. The team will continue to checkout these systems at Stennis as they prepare to operate them when the stage undergoes Green Run testing. The completion of the first core stage for Artemis I, the first flight of SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft, is an important step in sending the first woman and the next man to the Moon by 2024. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with Orion and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon. (NASA/XX)

This image shows the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket without scaffolding at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Assembly and integration of the core stage and its four RS-25 engines has been a collaborative, multistep process for NASA and its partners Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, and Aerojet Rocketdyne, the RS-25 engines lead contractor. NASA and the contractor team used the scaffolding previously positioned around the 212-foot core stage to assess the stage’s inside and check out the electronic systems distributed throughout the stage, including avionics and propulsion systems, that will enable the stage to operate during launch and flight. The team will continue to check out these systems at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where it will undergo the core stage Green Run testing.

Photographer Jared Lyons

Album Green_Run

Location MAF

Date December 30, 2019

Space Launch System SLS Artemis NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Michoud Assembly Facility Stennis Space Center rocket science rocket launch vehicle Moon

NASA Removes Scaffolding Surrounding Artemis I Rocket Core Stage