The core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
This image, taken Aug. 8, 2019, shows the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The core stage is 80% complete and, over the summer, engineers will add the last core stage structure – the engine section – and the four RS-25 engines. This complex stage controls the rocket’s journey for the first eight minutes of flight and produces two million pounds of thrust to send SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft on their first lunar mission, Artemis 1.
Image Credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon