The Last Component for the Second SLS Rocket Is Now in Florida!

NASA / Kim Shiflett

NASA Delivers Artemis II Hardware to Kennedy (News Release)

A significant piece of hardware for NASA’s Artemis II mission arrived on August 19 to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to complete final stacking operations. A semitrailer transported NASA’s Orion stage adapter nearly 700 miles from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

NASA Marshall built and tested the Orion stage adapter which connects to the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage to the Orion spacecraft. A diaphragm within the adapter protects Orion from flammable gases, such as hydrogen, generated during launch.

The Orion stage adapter is 5 feet tall (1.5 meters) with a diameter 18 feet wide (5.4 meters). The adapter can hold CubeSats, a miniature satellite about the size of a shoebox, to conduct science experiments and technology demonstrations. Artemis II will launch four CubeSats from NASA partners around the Earth while Orion is flying on its own towards the Moon.

The Orion stage adapter will remain at NASA Kennedy’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility to undergo CubeSat integration and then move to the Vehicle Assembly Building to be stacked on the SLS rocket.

The Artemis II test flight will take commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Koch from NASA, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen from CSA (Canadian Space Agency) around the Moon and return them safely back home. The mission is the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis program and is another step towards missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Kim Shiflett