National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) We just received one of the key components of New rocket to carry astronauts It is scheduled to be inserted into lunar orbit next year. Core components of the new Space Launch System have arrived in Florida and will soon be assembled, with pre-launch testing and inspection beginning. The planned missions are: September 2025.
This week, NASA received the SLS core stage at Kennedy Space Center after a week-long voyage from the assembly plant in New Orleans. Ars Technica reportsThe core, two rocket boosters, and upper stage will make up the spacecraft that will carry NASA astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, on a mission to the far side of the moon in September 2025. Ars Technica reports:
“The core is the backbone of the SLS and it’s the backbone of the Artemis program,” said Matthew Ramsey, NASA’s Artemis II mission manager. “We’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the core because we needed the core stage for all the integration testing and checkouts that we need to do. The core stage houses the avionics that power the entire system. The boosters are important, but the core is the backbone of the Artemis program. So today is a big day.”
Ramsey told ARS that ground teams will begin stacking the two powerful solid rocket boosters on NASA’s mobile launch pad in September. Each booster, supplied by Northrop Grumman, is made of five segments and a nose cone that are pre-packed with solid fuel. All of the SLS booster parts are at Kennedy Space Center and ready to be stacked, Ramsey said.
The SLS upper stage, built by United Launch Alliance, is also at the Florida launch site. Currently, the core stage is at Kennedy. In August or September, NASA plans to deliver the remaining two elements of the SLS rocket to Florida: the adapter structure that connects the core stage to the upper stage and the upper stage to the Orion spacecraft.
Assembling the complete SLS is no small task, and NASA will rely on specialized, large cranes in the Spacecraft Assembly Building to do much of the heavy lifting, the agency said. As explained in a recent blog postThe crane will first hoist each booster section into place, then lower the 212-foot core stage between them.
NASA hopes to complete these phases around December 2025 before moving forward with adding the upper and lower stages. Finally, the Orion spacecraft The plan is to return astronauts who have orbited the far side of the moon to Earth.
This is a delicate process that involves a variety of safety checks and tests. If the Artemis 2 lunar orbit flight is successful, the next step will be Return to the MoonThat’s what NASA is aiming for with Artemis 3.
A launch date for the third mission has not yet been set, but NASA and its contractors are already working on developing components for the rocket that will send astronauts back to the Moon. However, the actual launch date for the mission is yet to be determined. SpaceX’s new lunar rover plans Axiom Space Working on developing a new space suit.
