www.nasa.gov

JANUARY 2020

SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

SETTING THE 

STAGE FOR 

GREEN RUN
NASA TEAMS READY FOR 

ARTEMIS I CORE STAGE 

TEST SERIES

Employees at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans gather to watch as the Artemis I core stage is readied to ship to Stennis Space 

Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, for the Green Run test series.

NASA teams at Michoud Assembly Facility and Stennis Space Center worked together to transport and prepare for testing the 

largest core stage the agency has ever built. 

The Artemis I core stage was rolled to NASA’s Pegasus barge at Michoud and transported to Stennis, where it has begun the Green 

Run series of tests that will confirm that the stage is ready for its maiden voyage. 

The testing – called Green Run because the series will test new, or green, hardware – is the final test campaign ahead of the 

rocket’s maiden flight. The testing will be conducted on the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis, the nation’s largest rocket propulsion test 

site. Green Run will take place over several months, culminating in an eight-minute, full-duration hot fire of the stage’s four RS-25 

engines to generate 2 million pounds of thrust, as during an actual launch. After the hot fire test, crews will refurbish the stage and 

prepare it for shipment to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be prepared for the Artemis I launch.

NASA is building SLS, the world’s most powerful rocket, to return humans to deep space including destinations such as the Moon 

and Mars. Through the Artemis program, NASA will send the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024. Artemis I will be a 

test flight of the rocket and its Orion spacecraft without crew. Artemis II will carry astronauts into lunar orbit. Artemis III will send 

astronauts to the surface of the Moon. 

Read more: go.nasa.gov/2UfAI4S
ARTEMIS I CORE STAGE SHIPPED 

TO STENNIS FOR TESTING

Crews used large cranes to lift the Artemis 

I core stage for installation in the B-2 

test stand. The stage includes the liquid 

hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks, four RS25 engines and the vehicle’s avionics and 

flight computers. When it is filled with all 

733,000 gallons of propellant for flight, the 

stage will weigh more than 2 million pounds 

and will have the power to reach Mach 23 – 

faster than 17,000 miles per hour.

The core stage that will fly on the Artemis I mission is installed in the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, 

Mississippi, for Green Run testing. The test series is scheduled to take place over several months. 
SHAKING 

UP THE 

CORE 

STAGE 

WITH FIRST 

GREEN RUN 

TESTING

Test teams at Stennis Space Center completed modal testing, the initial testing of the Green Run series, Jan. 30. Modal testing 

mimics the stresses the core stage will endure during launch and verifies flight control parameters. 
SLS EMPLOYEES CELEBRATE ARTEMIS I 

CORE STAGE ROLLOUT

NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard joined leadership from the SLS Program, core stage and Michoud Assembly Facility to 

celebrate the completion of the Artemis I core stage Jan. 8. Manufacturing the SLS rocket is a combined effort for NASA and its 

industry partners with more than 1,100 companies across the United States contributing to the rocket’s production. Boeing is the 

lead contractor for the core stage.

Watch a video of the team rolling out the core stage: youtu.be/5AAp3cCcdMo

WHAT’S NEW IN SLS SOCIAL MEDIA

ROCKET SCIENCE IN 60 SECONDS

With the assembly of the first SLS core stage complete 

and delivered to Stennis Space Center near Bay St. 

Louis, Mississippi, for Green Run testing, NASA is 

focusing its efforts on building the core stages for the 

rocket’s second and third missions. For this episode 

of Rocket Science in 60 Seconds, Boeing production 

superintendent Eric Sturgeon takes you inside 

NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans 

where the SLS rocket core stages are manufactured. 

In this episode, he’ll explain how NASA and Boeing 

evaluate each rocket’s construction and what they’ve 

learned from building the first rocket stage. 

Watch the video here: youtu.be/q1W0H6VElV8
CHARTING 

THE PATH TO 

SUCCESSFUL 

BOOSTER 

STACKING

In High Bay 4 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, a crane lowers one SLS solid rocket booster pathfinder 

segment onto another segment during a training exercise Jan. 8. A team of engineers with Exploration Ground Systems and crane 

operators and technicians with contractor Jacobs are practicing lifting, moving and stacking maneuvers in preparation for stacking 

the boosters that will power the rocket on the Artemis I flight. 

Read the full story: go.nasa.gov/2vAco3a

SPACEFLIGHT PARTNERS: 

Triplett Machine Co.

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 50

LOCATION: Phelps, NY

WHAT THEY DO FOR SLS:

Triplett Machine provides small- to medium-complexity machined hardware. For more 

than three decades, the company has worked to surpass the learning curve on tight 

tolerance components for aerospace, defense and industrial applications. Triplett recently 

successfully completed deliveries of machined lugs ahead of program need to support the 

main combustion chamber for the RS-25 engines that power the SLS rocket. 

FOLLOW THE PROGRESS 

OF NASA’S NEW LAUNCH 

VEHICLE FOR DEEP SPACE:

Twitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Twitter.com/NASA_SLS

Facebook . . . . . . . . . . . Facebook.com/NASASLS