Launch creeping closer for NASA's most powerful rocket

Program manager says there's a 'great deal of work to do' before astronauts lift off in 2025

- RICHARD TRIBOU

Tugboats bring in the core stage for NASA's Space Launch System rocket on July 23.

The launch clock isn’t set yet, but the hardware is lined up for what would become the most powerful rocket to ever send humans into space during a moonbound trip the likes of which has not happened in more than 50 years.

The biggest piece of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket — the 65-metre-long core stage — crept its way into the massive vehicle assembly building on July 24, where work will begin to prepare it for the Artemis II launch set for no earlier than September 2025.

“The clock’s already started,” NASA SLS program manager John Honeycutt said. “We’ve got a great deal of work to do to get the rocket ready to go fly.”

The core stage sports four RS-25 engines converted by Melbourne-based L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne from the retired stock of the space shuttle program. Two of the engines have previously flown on a combined 20 shuttle missions while the other pair are making their debuts.

Engine 2047 flew on STS-135, the final launch of the program on Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2011.

Also no stranger to the Kennedy Space Center are the casings from the two solid rocket boosters fabricated by Northrop Grumman. They had previously supported space shuttle missions but were regularly fished out of the ocean for refurbishment. Those two boosters sit broken down into five segments each.

Combined, the core stage and the boosters provide 8.8 million pounds of thrust on liftoff.

Their next launch will make the SLS the most powerful rocket ever to send humans into space.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will ride in the Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule for what’s planned to be a 10-day trip around the moon.