Watch NASA Build Upper Portion of Artemis II Rocket Stage

Teams at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans completed the upper portion of the core stage that will help power Artemis II, the second flight of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and the first crewed Artemis mission to the Moon. The 66-foot-tall section makes up the top portion of the core stage. Teams used heavy-lift equipment to carefully lower and stack the liquid oxygen tank, intertank, and then the forward skirt on top of one another in a special stacking cell at Michoud. Then, they integrated and tested the various systems inside the upper portion of core stage. Later, teams will join the forward assembly with the liquid hydrogen tank and the engine section to complete the entire core stage. For more information about SLS, visit