An "enduring presence on the South Pole of the moon" must first pass through New Orleans, declared NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Dr. Lori Glaze on Monday morning.
As Glaze spoke, behind her, the 212-foot, 2.3-million-pound SLS Core System that will hold 733,000 gallons of liquid propellant necessary for fueling the next Artemis mission silently lurched from its parking spot within NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans East.
"We're going to keep 'em rolling," Glaze continued. "We're going to start seeing evidence of that next year as we start sending robotic missions to the South Pole to start demonstrating capabilities, testing technologies, and building this moon base where we will learn to live and work on the surface of the moon."
The next stage for this 'backbone' of Artemis III is a 9-day, slow-going boat ride from the Pegasus Barge at Michoud to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once it arrives, the core system will be outfitted with four RS-25 engines in preparation for the Artemis program's second crewed mission that will test docking and rendezvous capabilities with commercial Human Landing Service Vehicles from SpaceX and Blue Origin.
An "enduring presence on the South Pole of the moon" must first pass through New Orleans, declared NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Dr. Lori Glaze on Monday morning...
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As per NASA's news release: "Next year’s Artemis III mission will launch astronauts to Earth’s orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft on top of SLS to test rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and commercial spacecraft needed to land Artemis IV astronauts on the Moon in 2028. NASA’s SLS is the only rocket capable of sending Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch."
While the Artemis III mission remains over a year away, inside the 43-acre Michoud facility, scientists reveal how parts for the next two missions are already coming together. The sprawling complex holds components that will, once tested, make up the core systems for Artemis missions IV and V, which will lay the groundwork for a permanent moon base.
A NASA spokesperson explained that, now, given the success of the first two missions, the team's goal is to reduce the time to SLS Core rollout from where it stands now, between 2-3 years, down to around one year.
September 2026 marks Michoud's 65th anniversary as "America's Rocket Factory," an operation that was integral in the initial moon landing in 1969. Now, decades later, it remains just as central in propelling American space exploration toward its first permanent presence on the lunar surface.
"You all here play an absolutely critical role in what we're going to need to do here over the next several years," Glaze said toward the end of her speech. "So, we'll all continue to learn this legacy here, at Michoud, as we build on this incredible success."
