NASA rolled out a key piece of space hardware for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the first manned mission of NASA’s Artemis campaign from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for transport to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Aug. 21. The cone-shaped launch vehicle stage adapter connects the rocket’s main stage to the upper stage and protects the upper stage engine that will power Artemis II’s test flight around the moon, scheduled for 2025.
“The launch vehicle stage adapter is the largest SLS component for Artemis II that will be manufactured at the center,” said Chris Calfee, SLS Spacecraft Payload Integration and Evolution Element Manager. “Both adapters for the SLS rocket that will power the Artemis II and Artemis III missions will be manufactured entirely at NASA Marshall. Alabama plays a key role in returning astronauts to the moon.”
Crews moved the adapter from NASA’s Marshall Building 4708 onto the agency’s Pegasus ship on Aug. 21. The ship will first take the adapter to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where crews will pick up additional SLS hardware for future Artemis missions before continuing on to NASA Kennedy. Once in Florida, the adapter will be mated to the recently delivered main stage. There, teams from NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems will prepare the adapter for stacking and launch.
NASA Marshall engineering teams are in the final stages of integration work on the Artemis III launch vehicle stage adapter. The stage adapter is being manufactured by prime contractor Teledyne Brown Engineering and Jacobs Space Exploration Group’s Engineering Services and Science Capability Augmentation (ESSCA) contract, using NASA Marshall’s self-reacting friction stir robots and vertical welding tools.
As part of the Artemis campaign, NASA will land the first woman, the first person of color, and their first international partner astronaut on the moon. The rocket is part of NASA’s deep space exploration plans, along with the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, advanced spacesuits and rovers, Gateway in lunar orbit, and commercial human landing systems. NASA’s SLS is the only rocket capable of delivering Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the moon in a single launch.
For more information about SLS, see:
https://www.nasa.gov/sls
Jonathan Deal
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
256-544-0034
[email protected]
