Artemis III SLS Core Stage Joins Twin Boosters at Kennedy on Oct. 28; Tanking Test at Pad 39B Is Next
NASA said on Oct. 28 that the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the Artemis III mission has been integrated alongside its twin solid rocket boosters inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the latest step in stacking the heavy-lift rocket.
Technicians lifted the 212-foot core stage from the facility's High Bay 2 using a one-of-a-kind lifting beam designed to place the stage onto the mobile launcher, next to the boosters. Once testing and checkouts are complete, teams will roll the core stage and booster stack out to Launch Pad 39B to conduct a tanking test, in which liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants will be loaded only into the core stage while launch teams practice countdown procedures and timelines.
Under NASA's plan, Artemis III will launch NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, aboard the Orion spacecraft on top of the SLS rocket. The mission will test rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and commercial spacecraft from Blue Origin and SpaceX, ahead of a future mission to land astronauts on the Moon.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Artemis III 的 SLS 核心级在佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心航天器装配大楼内进行吊装集成作业，10月26日（NASA 肯尼迪航天中心官方照片，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons）。 / Photo: Integration work on the Artemis III SLS core stage inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Oct. 26 (NASA Kennedy Space Center, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
