NASA Barge Departs New Orleans with Artemis III Rocket Core Stage

NASA’s Pegasus barge departs from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on April 21. The barge arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 27 with the largest section of the core stage for the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that will launch the crewed Artemis III mission in 2027. Engineers will complete outfitting and vertical integration of the top four-fifths – the section containing the liquid hydrogen tank, liquid oxygen tank, intertank, and forward skirt – of the SLS core stage at NASA Kennedy. Next year’s Artemis III mission will launch astronauts to Earth’s 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. NASA’s SLS is the only rocket capable of sending Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker