Artemis I SLS Core Stage Prep for Lift/Mate

The fully stacked twin solid rocket boosters for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket are seen on top of the mobile launcher inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 9, 2021. Now that booster stacking is complete inside the VAB, teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs are preparing to integrate the boosters with largest part of the SLS rocket, the massive 212-foot core stage, which arrived at Kennedy in April 2020. The 188,000-pound core stage alone will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust during launch and ascent, and coupled with the boosters, will provide more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send the Artemis I mission to space. The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I will test SLS and the Orion spacecraft as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon.