NASA’s Pegasus barge charts a course for the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the Artemis I core stage for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The core stage will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help launch Artemis I, the first integrated mission of SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft under NASA’s Artemis lunar program. Pegasus is delivering the core stage from the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where it completed Green Run testing, to NASA’s Exploration Ground System (EGS) and Jacobs teams at Kennedy, where it will be prepared for stacking and integration with the rest of the rocket on the mobile launcher inside the center’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building. The delivery of the 212-foot-tall core stage marks the final piece of SLS flight hardware transported to the spaceport ahead of the Artemis I launch. Teams have fully stacked the boosters on the mobile launcher, and other parts of the rocket, including the launch vehicle stage adapter, Orion stage adapter, and Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, have been delivered and are being prepared for stacking.
With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon and establish sustainable exploration in preparation for missions to Mars. SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft, along with the commercial human landing system and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, are NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
Image Credit: NASA