The Artemis 2 mission is set to take four astronauts on a journey around the moon and back in September 2025. The core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, crucial for this mission, has recently been completed and shipped by Boeing and NASA. This marks a significant milestone in the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface and eventually establish a sustainable presence on the moon.
The SLS rocket, one of the most powerful rockets ever built, will provide the necessary thrust to propel the Orion spacecraft and its crew beyond Earth’s orbit. The core stage, towering over 200 feet tall, includes the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks that fuel the rocket’s engines.
This core stage underwent rigorous testing and assembly at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans before being transported to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Artemis 2 will be the first crewed mission of the Artemis program, following the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission. The crew will conduct a lunar flyby, allowing NASA to test the spacecraft’s systems and ensure everything is ready for future lunar landings.
On Wednesday, December 15, 2021, the NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) team broke over the stacked three hardware elements that form the top of the rocket’s core stage for the Artemis II mission. NASA and core stage prime contractor Boeing had connected the forward skirt with the liquid oxygen tank and intertank flight hardware inside an assembly area at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The stacked components are the first major assembly of core stage hardware for Artemis II, the first crewed Artemis mission and second flight of the SLS rocket.
At 66 feet tall, the upper part of the stage is just a fraction of the entire core stage. The fully-assembled, 212-foot-tall rocket stage consists of five hardware elements, including two liquid propellant tanks and four RS-25 engines. The liquid oxygen tank in the upper portion of the stage will hold 196,000 gallons of liquid oxygen cooled to minus 297 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, the forward skirt and intertank house avionics, flight computer, and electronic systems for the rocket stage. Together, the core stage and its four RS-25 engines will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help send Artemis II astronauts beyond Earth’s orbit to lunar orbit.
With Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon and establish sustainable exploration in preparation for missions to Mars. SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft, along with the commercial human landing system and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, are NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
This mission is a critical step towards NASA’s goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the moon by the end of the decade, paving the way for further exploration of Mars and beyond.
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