Artemis II Booster Processing

Technicians with Exploration Ground Systems perform inspections of the Northrop Grumman-manufactured two aft exit cones on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, inside the Rotation, Processing and Surge Facility (RPSF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida before mating processes begin for the agency’s Artemis II mission. The aft exit cones are attached to the bottom piece of the two boosters, (seen here in these photos), which is called the aft segment, and the exit cones act like a battery pack to provide added thrust for the boosters while protecting the aft skirts from thermal environment during launch of the agency’s first crewed mission under Artemis that will test all of the Orion spacecraft systems.