Artemis II Core Stage Delivered to Kennedy Space Center
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 05, 2024

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) core stage arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 24, 2024. The 65-meter-long core stage was transported by tugboats and towing vessels, covering a 1,448-kilometer journey from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where it was constructed.

In the coming months, NASA teams will integrate the core stage with the mobile launcher and other Artemis II flight components. This includes the twin solid rocket boosters, launch vehicle stage adapter, and the Orion spacecraft.

The Artemis II mission will be NASA's first crewed flight in the Artemis program. Astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman from NASA, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will embark on a 10-day mission around the Moon and back.

The Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo missions. It will establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon by the end of the decade and serve as a stepping stone for future missions to Mars. Artemis I, the program's first mission, was an uncrewed flight test that successfully demonstrated the performance of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. Artemis II will build on this success by carrying a human crew, testing critical systems and procedures in a real mission scenario.

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