Artemis I ICPS Stacked on SLS Rocket

Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs integrated the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the launch vehicle stage adapter (LVSA) atop the massive SLS core stage on the mobile launcher inside the agency’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 5, 2021. The ICPS’s RL 10 engine is housed inside the launch vehicle stage adapter, which will protect the engine during launch. The ICPS is a liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen-based system that will give the Orion spacecraft the big in-space push needed to fly tens of thousands of miles beyond the Moon. The next component to be stacked on top of ICPS will be the Orion stage adapter, which will connect the ICPS with the spacecraft. Through Artemis, NASA will send the first woman and the first person of color to the lunar surface, as well as establish a sustainable presence on and around the Moon. As the first in an increasingly complex set of missions, Artemis I will test SLS and Orion as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon.