NASA / Boeing
Yesterday, Boeing released the video below revealing that the forward join was completed on the top three components of the Space Launch System's (SLS) first core stage booster at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana. The forward skirt, liquid oxygen tank and innertank were combined to form the top half of the 212-foot-tall rocket stage. What remains to be done is the aft join...which involves combining the liquid hydrogen tank with the engine section that will house four space shuttle-era RS-25 engines. The aft and forward sections will then be attached to form the giant booster of the SLS.
Once construction is done, the core stage booster will be transported via barge to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to conduct a series of "green run" tests to ensure that everything on the mammoth rocket is functioning properly. It is after the completion of the green run campaign that the core stage will be refurbished before being sent to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to undergo launch preps for next year's Exploration Mission-1. The inaugural flight of SLS, which will send the Orion capsule on an unmanned journey to the Moon, is targeted for no earlier than June of 2020.
America's rocket rises as #Boeing workers assemble the top of the @NASA_SLS core stage - completing the forward join major milestone for its first flight around the moon. FULL STORY: https://t.co/1nq7wVDEwR #SpaceUSA pic.twitter.com/2FGazE2hPA
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) February 8, 2019
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