NASA Artemis III Moon Landing Rocket: Core Stage Major Join Complete

NASA Artemis III Moon Landing Rocket: Core Stage Major Join Complete

Teams with Boeing—NASA’s Prime Contractor for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket—mate the forward and aft ends of the core stage for the agency’s Artemis III mission at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on January 8, 2026. 

This operation secures four of the five major components of the core stage in place: the forward skirt, liquid oxygen tank, intertank, and the liquid hydrogen tanks. The final component—the engine section—was structurally completed in 2022 and shipped to Kennedy Space Center for final assembly and integration. Now joined, teams will continue integrating critical systems and perform various checks and tests to ensure the hardware is ready for shipment to Kennedy later this year.

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/Michael DeMocker

Date: Jan. 8, 2026 

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