Teams at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans have structurally connected all four RS-25 engines to the core stage of NASA's Artemis 2 lunar rocket. The flight test was NASA's first manned mission on an Artemis rocket.
Engineers and technicians from NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Boeing installed all four RS-25 engines at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans into the core stage of the NASA Space Launch System rocket that will power Artemis, the first manned mission to the moon. In the final assembly area of Michoud, you can see the yellow core stage in a horizontal position. The engines are arranged in a square shape at the base of the rocket stage, like legs on a table. Image credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon
On September 11, technicians installed the first engine onto the core stage of NASA's SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. The team installed the second engine onto the rocket core stage on September 15, and installed the third and fourth engines on September 19 and September 20. Technicians from NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3 Harris Technologies company, RS-25 engine prime contractor, and core stage prime contractor Boeing will now focus on the complex task of fully securing the engine to the core stage and integrating the propulsion and electrical systems into the core stage structure.
NASA's Space Launch System rockets will give us the ability to carry out bold missions in deep space, and we'll need the largest rocket stages ever built. This infographic summarizes everything you need to know about the SLS core stage, the 212-foot-tall core stage that is the backbone of the world's most powerful rocket. The core stage includes liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks and can hold 733,000 gallons of propellant to provide the stage's four RS-25 engines with the power needed to lift off and travel to Mars. Source: NASA/MSFC
The SLS core stage is 212 feet tall and is the backbone of the moon landing rocket. Its two huge propellant tanks provide more than 733,000 gallons of ultra-cooled liquid propellant to four RS-25 engines, while the stage's flight computers, avionics and electrical systems are the "brains" of the rocket. During the Artemis 2 flight, the RS-25 engines will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust during the eight-minute flight, helping the Artemis 2 crew fly beyond low Earth orbit and around the moon.
NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon with Artemis. SLS is part of NASA's deep space exploration backbone, joining Orion and Gateway in lunar orbit, as well as commercial crew landing systems. SLS is the only rocket capable of sending Orion, astronauts and supplies to the moon in a single mission.