NASA Artemis III Moon Rocket Liquid Oxygen Tank Production Move

NASA Artemis III Moon Rocket Liquid Oxygen Tank Production Move

Move crews at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans perform “breakover” operations on a liquid oxygen tank in the facility’s vertical assembly building on Aug. 22, 2025. During the breakover, teams lifted the tank from its vertical configuration inside of a production cell and set it horizontally atop self-propelled mobile transporters for transfer to the final assembly production area. There, it will undergo integration of the forward dome by Space Launch System (SLS) prime contractor, Boeing. Eventually, the liquid oxygen tank will be moved back to the high bay where it will be mated with the intertank and forward skirt to complete the forward join of the Artemis III core stage.

The propellant tank is one of five major elements that make up the 212-foot-tall rocket stage. The core stage, along with its four RS-25 engines, produce more than two million pounds of thrust to help launch NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts, and supplies beyond Earth’s orbit and to the lunar surface for Artemis.

Over the course of about 30 days, the Artemis III astronauts will travel to lunar orbit, where two crew members will descend to the surface and spend approximately a week near the South Pole of the Moon conducting new science before returning to lunar orbit to join their crew for the journey back to Earth. Launch is currently scheduled for mid-2027.

Follow updates on the Artemis blog: 
https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS)
https://www.nasa.gov/sls

NASA's Artemis III Mission:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-iii/

Read the Artemis Plan (74-page PDF Free Download): 
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/artemis_plan-20200921.pdf

NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF)
https://www.nasa.gov/michoud-assembly-facility/

Image Credit: NASA/Steven B. Seipel
Image Date: Aug. 22, 2025

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