NASA ROLL-OUT OF “TOP FOUR-FIFTHS” OF ARTEMIS III SLS ROCKET, Apr 20, 2026, New Orleans, LA

NASA will roll out the largest part of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the next Artemis mission, Artemis III, from the Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans, LA on April 20, 2026.  More information is in NASA’s press release.  The time was not included.

Referred to as the Top Four-Fifths or TFF of the rocket, it will be loaded onto a barge for shipment to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for launch in 2027.  The TFF includes the liquid hydrogen tank, liquid oxygen tank, intertank, and forward skirt.

The engine section and boat-tail (which protects the engines during launch) of the SLS rocket already are at KSC and the four RS-25 engines themselves are scheduled to be shipped to KSC from Stennis Space Center, MS no later than July 2026.

All the SLS segments are integrated — “stacked” — together in the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC where the two Solid Rocket Boosters also are attached and the Orion capsule installed.

Artemis III is now an earth-orbiting mission, not a lunar landing mission as once planned, to test rendezvous and docking techniques with the Human Landing Systems (HLSs) being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin to ferry astronauts between lunar orbit and the surface. As of April 2026, neither HLS system is ready so the date for this mission is undetermined. The crew also has not yet been named.

The first lunar landing since Apollo, Artemis IV, is currently planned for 2028.