At 212 feet (65 meters) high, the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is the “tallest flight component ever built by NASA.” So far, those numbers and words were only scribblings on a screen, as we lacked reference points to actually judge the thing’s size accurately. Not anymore.
As some of you might already know, earlier this week, the core stage of the SLS departed the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, from where by the end of the year, it should make history.
The rocket element arrived at its destination on April 29, when it was unloaded from its carrier barge and tucked away inside the space agency’s facilities. Boeing, the maker of the core stage, released a very short video of the moment when all this happened, and thanks to this, we are now able to truly judge the size of the thing as it moves around humans and cars. You can see for yourselves in the video attached below.
The core stage is now inside NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). It is there where over the course of the next few months, the massive element will be paired with the cryogenic upper stage (made by Boeing and United Launch Alliance), the two solid rocket boosters, the vehicle stage adapter, and the real star of this whole thing, the Orion capsule.
When all the assembly is completed, NASA will use an upgraded version of its crawler-transporter to move the entire rocket to its launch pad.
The first flight of the SLS and Orion is scheduled for later this year. Once above Earth, the spacecraft will officially kick off the Artemis space program that hopefully, by the middle of the decade, will once again put human boots on the surface of the Moon.
The rocket element arrived at its destination on April 29, when it was unloaded from its carrier barge and tucked away inside the space agency’s facilities. Boeing, the maker of the core stage, released a very short video of the moment when all this happened, and thanks to this, we are now able to truly judge the size of the thing as it moves around humans and cars. You can see for yourselves in the video attached below.
The core stage is now inside NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). It is there where over the course of the next few months, the massive element will be paired with the cryogenic upper stage (made by Boeing and United Launch Alliance), the two solid rocket boosters, the vehicle stage adapter, and the real star of this whole thing, the Orion capsule.
When all the assembly is completed, NASA will use an upgraded version of its crawler-transporter to move the entire rocket to its launch pad.
The first flight of the SLS and Orion is scheduled for later this year. Once above Earth, the spacecraft will officially kick off the Artemis space program that hopefully, by the middle of the decade, will once again put human boots on the surface of the Moon.