With the Orion spacecraft now atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which features the Boeing-built core stage, crews have focused their efforts to a series of tests and processes to prepare for rollout. Rollout is when the rocket will roll out of the Vehicle Assembly Building to its launch position at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Why it matters: This critical work by Boeing’s Launch Engineering teams ensures a successful mission for Artemis’ first crewed flight around the moon. 

What they’re doing:

• Engine insulation and closure: Crews finalise the engine section by installing the engine flight blanket insulation and removing the interior access ladders and platforms. 
• Thermal protection and stabilization: Teams are closing out thermal protection systems, vehicle stabilization systems, and conducting various test port close-outs.
• Interface verification testing (IVT): The team conducted IVT with Orion – validating the SLS element internal interfaces, as well as the SLS-to-ground and SLS-to-Orion interfaces. This test is critical to ensure the vehicle is ready for final close-outs and the remaining integrated tests before rolling out to the pad. 
• End-to-end communication checks: Communications end-to-end testing to verify connections between all elements, including antennas and cameras. This testing confirms that telemetry from core stage, Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, and Orion functions properly and can be received by KSC partners, such as Johnson Space Center.

What’s next: In the coming weeks, the team will perform the countdown demonstration test (CDDT), where the Artemis II crew will participate in the testing of the planned pad timeline for crew operations. 

• Results from CDDT will inform the team of any needed adjustments. 
• Following that, the team will complete installation and test of the flight termination system; roll out to the launch pad for additional pad-specific testing – like Wet Dress Rehearsal – and ultimately be ready for launch. 

About the mission: Boeing is helping NASA send astronauts to orbit around the moon for the first time in 54 years to enable greater exploration of the lunar surface. 

• Scheduled for no later than April 2026, Artemis II will mark the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft, taking NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the moon. This is the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo.
• NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket – the U.S.’s next-generation, deep space rocket – will enable NASA’s Artemis program to carry people and cargo to the moon, Mars and beyond. 
• Boeing was selected to design, develop, test and produce the core stages, upper stages, and avionics for the SLS fleet. The Artemis I mission successfully launched on November 16, 2022.
• Production is underway for the Boeing-built core stages, upper stages – including the Exploration Upper Stage – and avionics for future Artemis missions, reinforcing Boeing’s commitment to advancing human space exploration.

By David Kurt

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