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NASA’s Barge Pegasus Departs Michoud with Critical SLS Test Hardware

SLS Intertank in Barge Pegasus leaving MAF
NASA's barge Pegasus leaves the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, en route to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Pegasus is ferrying a structural test version of the intertank for NASA's new deep-space rocket, the Space Launch System.

NASA’s barge Pegasus leaves the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, en route to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Pegasus is ferrying a structural test version of the intertank for NASA’s new deep-space rocket, the Space Launch System, along the Tombigbee and Tennessee rivers to Marshall for testing. Engineers at Marshall will push, pull and bend the intertank with millions of pounds of force to ensure the hardware can withstand the forces of launch and ascent. SLS will enable a new era of exploration beyond Earth’s orbit, launching astronauts in NASA’s Orion spacecraft on deep-space exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The flight version of the intertank will connect the core stage’s two colossal fuel tanks, serve as the upper-connection point for the two solid rocket boosters and house critical avionics and electronics.

Image Credit: NASA/Michoud/Steven Seipel