Artemis III Core Stage Offload and Transport to VAB

NASA’s top four-fifths of the SLS (Space Launch System) core stage for the Artemis III mission is offloaded from the agency’s Pegasus barge on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida the prior day. The four-fifths contains the liquid hydrogen tank, liquid oxygen tank, intertank, and forward skirt of the SLS rocket and will be joined with the remaining core stage segments at Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building High Bay 2 prior to rocket stacking operations. Artemis III 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. 

Location: OSB II, LC 39 Area