All 4 rocket engines attached to the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System

NASA has announced that it has been successful in structurally mating all four of the RS-25 rocket engines to the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) for the Artemis I mission. Artemis I will be the first mission for the SLS as well as NASA’s Orion spacecraft. With all four rocket engines attached, NASA says that the core is now the rocket stage built by them since the Saturn V stages used for the Apollo Program that sent humans to the moon. The stage will provide more than two million pounds of thrust to send Artemis I to the Moon.

Formerly called Exploration Mission-1, Artemis I will be the first integrated test of NASA's deep space exploration systems which would include the Orion spacecraft, the SLS, and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test and NASA says that it aims to “provide a foundation for human deep space exploration and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.”

Once launched, the Artemis I mission will see the spacecraft travel 280,000 miles from Earth, farther than any spacecraft built for humans has traveled. It will also stay in space longer than any ship made for astronauts has before without docking to a space station. 

“This is a mission that truly will do what hasn’t been done and learn what isn’t known,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “It will blaze a trail that people will follow on the next Orion flight, pushing the edges of the envelope to prepare for that mission.” 

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