Printer Version Boeing’s 1st Core Stage for NASA’s Space Launch System Arrives at Kennedy Space Center
A Boeing-built rocket core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System was unloaded from a barge at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center and moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building.
The 212-foot (65-meter) core stage will be stacked with a Boeing/United Launch Alliance Interim Cryogenic Upper Stage, two solid rocket boosters, a Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter and the Orion spacecraft. Teams will prepare the SLS to launch Orion on an uncrewed mission around the moon and back called Artemis I.
The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will test the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the moon for sustained exploration. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts and cargo to the moon in a single mission.
Ten month schedule to ready SLS for Artemis 1 launch after Core Stage arrives at KSC
May 3, 2021
NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program is looking at a wide range of forecasts for when they can complete testing necessary to be ready to launch Artemis 1. The Core Stage of NASA’s first Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle arrived at the Kennedy Space Center and was moved into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on April 29 to prep for stacking with the new launch vehicle’s Solid Rocket Boosters, which are already in place on the Mobile Launcher in High Bay 3.
Approximately six months of work is anticipated to finish assembly and complete a long series of tests and checkouts of SLS and the Orion spacecraft it will send to the Moon, but current forecasts of this first-time integration work estimate closer to ten months to complete the necessary operations. After the vehicle is put together, weeks and weeks of testing to make sure SLS and Orion are properly talking to each
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NASA SLS Green Run testing complete, Boeing readies Core Stage for tow to Florida
April 12, 2021
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) program and prime Core Stage contractor Boeing wrapped up the Green Run testing campaign on the Artemis 1 flight article at the Stennis Space Center and are readying the vehicle for its long-awaited shipment to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. After reviewing the performance of the vehicle from its second test-firing in mid-March, NASA and Boeing agreed that the stage could be reconfigured from testing to launch.
While refurbishment activities continue, the team at Stennis has also started disconnecting the stage from the test stand to prepare for departure from Stennis. Weather will be a key factor in when the stage can be put on board the agency’s Pegasus barge to start the waterway tow trip from Stennis to Kennedy, but a late-April arrival at KSC is still possible with KSC schedules currently forecasting attachment of the Core Stage t
Kjell Lindgren, 47 (1 flight; 2 spacewalks)
Nicole Mann, 43 (rookie)
Jessica Meir, 43 (1 flight; 3 spacewalks)
Jasmin Moghbeli, 37 (rookie)
Frank Rubio, 43 (rookie)
Jessica Watkins, 32 (rookie)
NASA also provided an exciting introduction.
Mike Pence (yeah I know: ugh) was on hand to introduce the group, highlighting that the return to the moon by 2024 was a priority of the outgoing Trump administration. While the plans for a manned pass around the moon are well underway, followed by a manned flight that will involve members of this team, it’s not clear what sort of funding the incoming Biden administration will provide for this lofty and extremely ambitious goal. NASA needs a lot more funding to make it happen, but I honestly hope they do.