Liquid Oxygen Tank Barrel for Core Stage Moves for Next Phase of Production

On Thursday, February 10, 2022, move crews at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility lift the core stage 3 liquid oxygen tank (LOX) aft barrel out of the vertical friction stir weld tool to be moved for its next phase of production. Eventually, the aft barrel will be mated with the forward barrel and forward and aft domes to create the LOX tank, which will be used for the Space Launch System’s Artemis III mission. The LOX tank holds 196,000 gallons of super-cooled liquid oxygen to help fuel four RS-25 engines. The SLS core stage is made up of five unique elements: the forward skirt, liquid oxygen tank, intertank, liquid hydrogen tank, and the engine section. The liquid oxygen hardware, along with the liquid hydrogen tank will provide propellant to the four RS-25 engines to produce more than two million pounds of thrust to help launch NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts, and supplies beyond Earth’s orbit to the Moon. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker