Teams at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lift a 51-foot-tall liquid oxygen tank out of the high bay’s hydrostatic proof testing cell on July 20, 2026. The liquid oxygen tank, which will form part of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for NASA’s Artemis IV mission to the Moon, is rotated from a vertical to a horizontal configuration and placed into two static cradles in the main aisle of the vertical assembly building. Having completed proof testing, teams prepare the tank for transport to a production area in the main factory where they will perform post-proof non-destructive evaluations. The propellant tank will hold more than 196,000 gallons of super-cooled liquid oxygen at launch and is one of five major elements that make up the 212-foot-tall SLS rocket stage. The core stage, along with its four RS-25 engines at its base, produces more than two million pounds of thrust to help launch NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts, and supplies beyond Earth’s orbit and to the lunar surface for Artemis. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker