One Big Step Closer to the Moon

April 30, 2021 – Yesterday was a great day for aerospace in Florida! The rocket core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) was unloaded from a barge and moved into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center. This is the first moon rocket to arrive at the VAB since the Apollo program.

The 212-foot SLS core stage will be stacked with a Boeing/United Launch Alliance Interim Cryogenic Upper Stage, two solid rocket boosters, a Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter and the Orion spacecraft. Teams will prepare the SLS to launch Orion on an uncrewed Artemis I mission around the moon and back.

The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will test the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the moon for sustained exploration.

Press Release: Boeing