Artemis III core rocket arrives at Kennedy Space Center
Artemis II astronauts may have just returned from a successful mission to the moon, but NASA engineers are already preparing for the upcoming Artemis III launch.
The largest portion of the rocket for the Artemis III mission arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s Merritt Island on Monday. NASA.
Frank Michaux/NASA – PHOTO: The Pegasus barge carrying four-fifths of the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) main stage for NASA’s Artemis III mission arrives at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Complex 39 return basin dock in Florida on April 27, 2026.
The 212-foot-long Space Launch System (SLS) core stage was fabricated at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans before traveling 900 miles by barge to the space center, where all assembly would take place.
According to NASA, the core stage includes the liquid hydrogen tank, liquid oxygen tank, intertank and forward skirt.
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On Tuesday, the upper four-fifths of the core stage was moved to NASA’s Vehicle Assembly, where it will be integrated with the boat tail and nacelle to complete the entire stage assembly.
hosted by NASA live broadcast unloading the core stage and transporting it to the Vehicle Assembly Building.
Kathleen Flynn/Getty Images – PHOTO: An RS-25 engine sits outside the facility as NASA removes the first four-fifths of the SLS core stage for the Artemis III mission from the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana, on April 20, 2026.
The historic 10-day Artemis II mission, which began April 1 and ended April 10, took the four-person crew on a 694,481-mile journey around the moon.
Its flyby of the Moon allowed astronauts to observe unprecedented views of the moon’s Orientale basin with human eyes for the first time.
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next task, Artemis IIIIt will test the rendezvous and docking capabilities between the Orion spacecraft and the commercial spacecraft that will be used to land astronauts on the moon.
The demonstration mission in low Earth orbit will test one or both of SpaceX and Blue Origin’s commercial landers, respectively.
Matthew Hinton/AFP via Getty Images – PHOTO: NASA personnel help roll out the largest section of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for Artemis III at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on April 20, 2026.
The Artemis III crew is expected to launch Orion aboard an SLS rocket from Kennedy Space Center in late 2027, according to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
According to NASA, humanity will return to the lunar surface during the Artemis IV mission, which is expected to launch in 2028.
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current plan for Artemis IV It calls for astronauts to go into lunar orbit, where crew members will descend to the moon’s surface near the South Pole to conduct tests. They will then rejoin the rest of the crew in lunar orbit and return to Earth.
Artemis IV will be the first landing on the Moon with humans since Apollo 17 in 1972.
