Artemis III
NASA Completes Artemis III Short Stack at Kennedy Ahead of Fueling Test
The SLS core stage has joined its solid rocket boosters inside the Vehicle Assembly Building as teams prepare for testing at Launch Pad 39B.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA has integrated the Artemis III rocket’s core stage with its twin solid rocket boosters at Kennedy Space Center, completing the short stack that will undergo a fueling test before the mission’s planned 2027 flight.
The agency released photographs and an update Oct. 28 showing the Space Launch System hardware assembled inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building. The milestone brings together the rocket’s central propulsion stage and boosters on the mobile launcher ahead of ground testing.
Technicians used a specialized lifting beam to position the 212-foot core stage. After completing testing and checkouts inside the building, teams will move the assembly to Launch Pad 39B. There, they will load liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the core stage and rehearse countdown activities, according to NASA’s latest update.
The work follows several months of assembly at Kennedy. NASA began installing the core stage’s four RS-25 engines in August, after joining the engine section to the remainder of the stage earlier in the summer. Each engine weighs about 7,700 pounds and has previous space shuttle flight experience.
One of those engines, numbered 2048, flew on both John Glenn’s STS-95 mission and STS-129, which carried Artemis III commander Randy Bresnik. The engines are housed at the base of the core stage, where they receive propellant from the rocket’s two large tanks during ascent, NASA said in its August hardware update.
By its Oct. 13 progress report, NASA had completed engine installation and booster stacking. The boosters supply more than three-quarters of SLS thrust at liftoff, while their forward assemblies contain avionics and hardware used in separation from the core stage.
Ground preparations extend beyond the rocket. NASA said the Artemis III crew will conduct a launch-day rehearsal and emergency exit walkdown during the upcoming pad campaign. That exercise includes putting on flight suits, traveling to the pad, ascending the mobile launcher and practicing the evacuation route. Teams have also been refurbishing the pad’s flame deflector following Artemis II, according to the October progress report.
Artemis III is planned as an Earth-orbit demonstration of Orion’s ability to operate with commercial lunar lander test vehicles. Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano will fly aboard Orion, with the mission intended to prepare crews and controllers for subsequent lunar landings.
At an Oct. 23 briefing, NASA officials described a year-end tanking-test target and a summer 2027 launch goal, Aerospace America reported. The immediate next step at Kennedy is to finish the integrated stack’s checks before committing the hardware to its pad test.
