Following 900-mile journey from New Orleans, Artemis II moon rocket’s core stage arrives in Florida
Posted on: August 29, 2024
As Seen in Spectrum News
CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — The Artemis II rocket’s core stage that will help carry four astronauts to orbit the moon — the first time in more than 50 years humans visited Earth’s lunar sister — arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday.
The fully assembled 212-foot-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket took about a 900-mile ferry ride from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans (where it was built) via the Pegasus barge on Tuesday, July 16.
On Wednesday, the rocket core stage was removed from the barge and moved into Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building, a more than three-hour trek just to go a little less than half a mile.
At some point, while the core stage is all nestled in the Vehicle Assembly Building and being reviewed by engineers, the two solid rocket boosters and the Orion spacecraft will be attached to the massive rocket.
Matt Ramsey, Artemis II mission manager, said it was “shocking” and “fantastic” to witness the core stage being pulled out of the barge. He shared with Spectrum News the gambit the core stage will go through while it is in the Vehicle Assembly Building.
The Artemis II mission is scheduled to take off in September 2025, sending a crew of four people to orbit the moon.
It was originally set to launch later this year, but in January 2024, NASA officials announced that the mission would be pushed back because of safety reasons, such as an issue with the heat shield.
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