NASA Completes Artemis III Booster Stacking, Installs Four RS-25 Engines
FLORIDA — NASA's October 13 mission update reports a key milestone for the Artemis III crewed lunar mission: both solid rocket boosters for the Space Launch System (SLS) have been fully stacked inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, and all four RS-25 main engines have been installed on the core stage.
NASA said the boosters' nose-cone assemblies were completed on September 30, finishing the stacking operation; the twin boosters provide more than 75 percent of the rocket's thrust during the first minutes of launch. Next, the core stage will be mated with the boosters in a "short stack" configuration and rolled out to Launch Pad 39B in the coming months for a cryogenic tanking rehearsal. The four Artemis III astronauts — Randy Bresnick, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas and ESA's Luca Parmitano — will also take part in a launch-day rehearsal and emergency-exit walkdown.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman wrote on October 18 that the stacking process has become markedly more efficient, cutting the schedule by about 50 percent. Artemis III is the centerpiece of NASA's return-to-the-Moon program, targeting a crewed landing near the lunar south pole. (GSM, from NASA public information)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：阿尔忒弥斯三号的 SLS 助推器在 Kennedy 航天中心飞行器组装大楼内完成堆叠（2026年9月30日）。图片来源：NASA，公共领域。Photo: The Artemis III SLS boosters fully stacked inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Sept. 30, 2026). Source: NASA, public domain.
