NASA's Artemis III SLS Rocket Core Stage Arrives at Kennedy Space Center

NASA's Artemis III SLS Rocket Core Stage Arrives at Kennedy Space Center

NASA’s Pegasus barge, carrying the top four-fifths of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) core stage for the Artemis III mission, arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Complex 39 on Monday, April 27, 2026. The Pegasus barge, maintained at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans, Louisiana, was originally used during the Space Shuttle Program. It has been redesigned and extended to accommodate the SLS rocket’s massive 212-foot-long core stage—the backbone of the rocket.

NASA’s top four-fifths of the SLS core stage for the Artemis III mission was then offloaded from the Pegasus barge on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. The four-fifths contains the liquid hydrogen tank, liquid oxygen tank, intertank, and forward skirt of the SLS rocket and will be joined with the remaining core stage segments at Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) High Bay 2 prior to rocket stacking operations. 

Artemis III will launch astronauts into Earth orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft on top of SLS in 2027 to test rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and other commercial spacecraft that are needed to land Artemis IV astronauts on the Moon in 2028.

Artemis III Misson:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-iii/

NASA's Pegasus Barge:
https://www.nasa.gov/nasas-barge-pegasus/

Video Credit: NASA/Cory S. Huston

Duration: 6 minutes
Date: April 28, 2026

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