After a mere 28 days had passed since the launch of Artemis II, the core stage for the next mission in the program has arrived at Kennedy Space Center. Artemis III’s Space Launch System core stage completed a 900-mile barge trip from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where the stage is built, and arrived at Kennedy Space Center on April 27. It was offloaded and transported to the VAB this morning.

The hardware made the trip aboard the Pegasus barge, NASA’s purpose-built ocean-going transporter for SLS hardware. Its arrival sets up the final stretch of vehicle integration for the third flight of the Artemis program.

Today’s arrival is the “4/5th” of the SLS core stage. The “boat-tail”, or engine compartment, has been here for some time now, and is already being prepared for the Artemis III mission planned for next year. That segment includes the liquid hydrogen tank, the liquid oxygen tank, the intertank, and the forward skirt. It’s initially headed for High Bay 2 of the Vehicle Assembly Building, where it will join the boat-tail/engine section that arrived at Kennedy in August 2025. Once mated, the full core stage will undergo outfitting and vertical integration with the rest of the rocket.

Artemis III is the first mission of the program intended to put astronauts back on the lunar surface. The flight will test rendezvous and docking between the Orion spacecraft and the commercial human landing system that will ferry the crew down to the Moon. Orion will ride atop the SLS rocket, which provides the heavy-lift capability needed to send the spacecraft on a translunar trajectory. The mission is slated for the latter half of 2027.

Author: Charles Boyer

NASA kid from Cocoa Beach, FL, born of Project Apollo parents and family. I’m a writer and photographer sharing the story of spaceflight from the Eastern Range here in Florida.