After a 900-mile (1,448-kilometer) journey from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans aboard the historic Pegasus barge, the Boeing-built core stage, which powers NASA’s Space Launch System rocket for the Artemis campaign, was delivered to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida, this week and transported to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).
Why it matters: The delivery and transport of the stage to KSC marks a transition from manufacturing to launch readiness for the rocket. This core stage will power the Artemis II mission and carry the first woman and person of color to lunar orbit no earlier than September 2025.
What’s next: Now safely inside the VAB, the core stage will go through additional outfitting ahead of integration with the upper stage, boosters and NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket — the nation’s next-generation, super-heavy-lift rocket — will enable NASA’s Artemis program and will carry people and cargo to the moon, Mars and beyond. Boeing was selected by NASA to design, develop, test and produce the core stages, upper stages and avionics suite for the SLS fleet of rockets. The first SLS rocket — featuring the Boeing-built core stage — successfully launched at 1:47 a.m. Eastern time on Nov. 16, 2022, as part of the Artemis I mission. Production is currently underway for the Boeing-built core stages, upper stages (including Exploration Upper Stage) and avionics for future Artemis missions. Learn more about the SLS.