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Space Launch System Core Stage: Vertical Weld Center

A barrel is lifted off the Vertical Weld Center (VWC) at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
A barrel is lifted off the Vertical Weld Center (VWC) at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

A barrel is lifted off the Vertical Weld Center (VWC) at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The VWC is a friction-stir-weld tool for wet and dry structures on the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage. It will weld barrel panels together to produce whole barrels for the two pressurized tanks, the intertank, the forward skirt and the aft engine section.

Image credit: NASA/MAF

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