Commercial Crew-13 Astronauts in VAB

NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) core stage for the Artemis III mission undergoes prelaunch processing inside High Bay 2 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. This marks the first time core stage assembly operations for Artemis missions have been conducted at the spaceport. Artemis III will launch astronauts to low Earth orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft on top of SLS to test rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and commercial spacecraft needed to land Artemis IV astronauts on the Moon in 2028.