Editor’s note: This article was updated May 15, 2026, to add clarification to the spacer design. NASA is moving quickly to define next year’s Artemis III mission in Earth orbit, a crewed flight that will test rendezvous and docking capabilities between the agency’s Orion spacecraft and commercial landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX. Since a February
Teams move the core stage, or largest section, of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for NASA’s Artemis III mission into the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in this photo from April 27, 2026. The SLS core stage traveled 900 miles on the Pegasus barge from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the stage is manufactured, to complete
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