NASA has finished stacking the core of the rocket for Artemis III. Inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, technicians used a custom lifting beam to move the 212-foot Space Launch System core stage from a neighbouring bay and lower it between its twin solid rocket boosters on the mobile launcher.
How the stack came together
- October 22: core stage lifted from the transfer aisle.
- October 23: positioned horizontally in the transfer aisle.
- October 25: set between the boosters, completing the "short stack."
- October 28: NASA reported integration complete.
What happens next
- Testing and checkouts of the integrated stack inside the VAB.
- Rollout to Launch Pad 39B for a tanking test: liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen loaded into the core stage only, with launch teams rehearsing countdown procedures and timelines.
NASA hasn't given a launch date in this update.
The mission, recalibrated
If you last checked in on Artemis a while ago, the plan has changed. Artemis III will carry NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas, plus ESA's Luca Parmitano, on Orion atop SLS. Its goal is to test rendezvous and docking between Orion and commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin — the critical handoff that future crews will rely on to actually reach the lunar surface.
In other words, Artemis III is a dress rehearsal for landing rather than the landing itself. That's a less dramatic headline, but it's the step that de-risks the hardest part of the architecture: two very different spacecraft, built by different companies, meeting and mating in deep space.
Also this week
- Reid Wiseman, commander of Artemis II, was named to a deputy leadership role at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech manages.
- Vietnam became the newest signatory of the Artemis Accords, the international framework for lunar exploration.
