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NASA’s Barge Pegasus Crew Prepares Space Launch System Rocket Stage for First Voyage

NASA’s Barge Pegasus Crew Prepares Space Launch System Rocket Stage for First Voyage
The crew of NASA's Barge Pegasus prepares for voyage after successfully loading the core stage for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS)­ rocket onto the vessel Jan. 8.

The crew of NASA’s Barge Pegasus prepares for voyage after successfully loading the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket onto the vessel Jan. 8. The crew, from left, includes Terry Fitzgerald, Alan Murphy, Nick Owen, Jarret Wiltbank, Arlan Cochran, John Campbell, Chris Marcus, Clay Necaise and Joe Robinson, who help take the massive core stage on its first journey. With the core stage and barge crew aboard, Pegasus ferried the completed core stage from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, for the core stage Green Run test series. Measuring 212 feet tall and 27.6 feet in diameter, the SLS core stage is the longest item ever shipped by a NASA barge. Pegasus was modified and refurbished to successfully ferry the SLS core stage, which is more than 50 feet longer than the space shuttle external tank and — including ground support and transportation equipment — more than 600,000 pounds heavier. The massive core stage contains the cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks that will feed four RS-25 rocket engines, along with the vehicle’s avionics and flight computers. Upon arrival to Stennis, the Artemis rocket stage was into the B-2 Test Stand for the core stage Green Run test series, an important step toward safely launching SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft beyond Earth’s orbit forward to the Moon.

Image Credit: NASA/ Eric Bordelon