All articles tagged with #michoud assembly facility
NASA will roll the top four-fifths of the Artemis III Space Launch System core stage from Michoud Assembly Facility to the Pegasus barge for transport to Kennedy Space Center, inviting U.S. media to cover the April 20 rollout as the stage is outfitted and stacked for Artemis III (targeted for 2027) with RS-25 engines shipping from Stennis by mid-2026.
New Orleans' Michoud Assembly Facility has long produced major rocket stages for NASA—from Saturn V and Space Shuttle external tanks to the Space Launch System core stages for Artemis. With Artemis II crewed and Artemis III targeting mid-2027, production workflows have evolved to complete more of the core stage at Michoud before final assembly at Kennedy Space Center, underscoring the facility's central role in America's lunar ambitions while its workforce weather the program's ups and downs.
Boeing has resumed two-shift operations at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to complete final testing and checkout of the SLS Core Stage, which will be used for the Artemis II mission. Testing is expected to be completed by the end of November, with final thermal protection system and configuration work to be finished by the end of the year. The stage will then be shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center for integration with the rest of the flight vehicle. The slowdown in work earlier this year was due to delays in the delivery of liquid oxygen feedline parts.
Aerojet Rocketdyne has begun installing four RS-25 liquid-propellant rocket engines into NASA's second Space Launch System (SLS) core stage at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The engines were originally prepped for installation earlier this year but were delayed due to core stage readiness. The first engine, engine 2059, was installed on September 11, and the remaining engines will be installed in sequence. Final integrated testing will be completed before the stage is delivered to its launch site at Kennedy Space Center in November or late fall.