The integrated operations team of NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) and prime launch processing contractor Jacobs completed mating the SLS Core Stage for Artemis 1 with its boosters on June 13, another in a series of firsts that will culminate in the debut flight of NASA’s new launch vehicle, currently projected for no earlier than late-2021. After the stage was raised off its transportation carrier and rotated vertical, the backbone of the launch vehicle was lifted up into High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and bolted to its two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB).
The physical combination of the large SLS elements was a big step in the overall Artemis 1 launch campaign. Now that the Core Stage and boosters are bolted together, EGS and Jacobs can now branch work out into parallel paths, beginning to plug SLS into the EGS control system to prepare for months of testing and checkouts while continuing to stack the rest of the launch vehicle and eventually the Orion spacecraft.