Fourth Liquid Hydrogen Tank for NASA’s Space Launch System Rocket Assembled

Teams at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lift the 130-foot-tall liquid hydrogen tank off the vertical assembly center on Nov. 14. This is the fourth liquid hydrogen tank manufactured at the facility for the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. The completed tank will be loaded into a production cell for technicians to remove the lift tool, perform dimensional scans, and then install brackets, which will allow the move crew to break the tank over from a vertical to a horizontal configuration. The propellant tank 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. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker