HEO AA Leadership Team Visits VAB

Exploration Ground Systems Manager Mike Bolger (left), NASA Human Exploration and Operations Associate Administrator Kathy Lueders (center), and Acting Director of Kennedy Space Center Janet Petro (right), visit the spaceport’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in Florida on June 11, 2021. In the background, the core stage of NASA’s massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is visible in vertical position during lift and mate operations, prior to the core stage being moved and integrated with the twin solid rocket boosters atop the mobile launcher in High Bay 3 of the VAB. The 188,000-pound core stage, with its four RS-25 engines, 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. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, as well as establish a sustainable presence on the lunar surface in preparation for human missions to Mars.