NASA’s SLS Super Heavy-Lift Rocket In Process for Artemis II and Beyond

NASA is preparing the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the Artemis II mission, which will launch the first crew to the Moon since 1972. The mission, launching no later than April 2026, will send four astronauts on a ten-day mission to the Moon and back, using a free-return trajectory. Four of the major elements of the SLS for Artemis II are at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center or at United Launch Alliance’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station facilities in Florida. The final element of SLS, the Orion stage adapter, will arrive at Kennedy in 2025. Vehicle integration is underway with stacking the two solid rocket boosters on the mobile launcher, and the core stage being placed in a new vertical workstation in High Bay 2 in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy, undergoing final preparations for stacking. The flight software is loaded on the flight computers. Hardware for Artemis III, IV, and V is in various stages of production and processing at NASA and contractor facilities across the country. Test articles for the exploration upper stage, universal stage adapter, and payload adapter that will fly on the SLS Block 1B variant are in testing at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Block 1B will debut on Artemis IV. Its flight software is also in development. In 2024, NASA and L3Harris Technologies completed the certification test program of the new production RS-25 liquid engines that power the core stage. Acceptance hot fire of the first new production engine is expected in spring 2025. Development of the evolved solid rocket boosters that will debut on Artemis IX will feature a full-scale test in 2025. Hardware progress for multiple Artemis missions and the capabilities of SLS to support the nation’s most ambitious missions will be presented.