Artemis IV Forward Ring Moves to Vertical Assembly Center

Teams at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lift a forward ring into the vertical assembly center on Nov. 19. There, the ring will be attached to the forward skirt, which will be used on NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket core stage for the agency’s Artemis IV mission. Later, another ring will be added to the aft end of the forward skirt. Seven rings are used in the production of the core stage. They provide stiffening for the dome structures on the propellant tanks and, as on the forward skirt, serve as attachment points for the major components to form the SLS core stage. The forward skirt is one of five major elements that make up the 212-foot-tall rocket stage. The core stage, along with its four RS-25 engines, produce more than two million pounds of thrust to help launch NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts, and supplies beyond Earth’s orbit and to the lunar surface for Artemis.