With the arrival of its Core Stage, much of Artemis II’s major components are starting to come together, and not long in the future, NASA engineers and technicians will start to assemble to rocket that will return humans to cislunar space — a place not visited by mankind since 1972.

According to NASA, Aremis II will be “The first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration. The 10-day flight will test NASA’s foundational human deep space exploration capabilities, the SLS rocket, Orion spacecraft, for the first time with astronauts.”

Four astronauts will venture around the Moon on Artemis II. Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor J. Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen are selected for the mission and have been training for it while Artemis II’s fabrication was completed.

While Artemis II will not feature a landing on the lunar surface, it will serve to not only further prove out Space Launch System, it will also be a chance to confirm all of the spacecraft’s systems operate as designed with crew aboard in the actual environment of deep space. The mission is currently slated to launch no earlier than September of 2025.

The Solid Rocket Boosters For Artemis II Are Also Onsite at KSC

The solid rocket boosters that will be used for Artemis II are in storage near the VAB. “We have all these other segments already vertical on the storage facility that you see outside the facility here,” said Daniel Jimenez, Operations Project Engineer (OPE) within the Vehicle Integration and Launch branch of the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Program.

“All of those segments are there. This is the first step to getting the booster [built.]” The facility Jiminez is referring to is the Rotation, Processing and Surge Facility, located just north of the VAB at Kennedy Space Center.

There are five segments to each solid rocket booster, and ten total for Artemis II. Receiving them into Kennedy Space Center’s facilities and preparing them for the assembly workflow is no small task. “You see that rail car right there outside of the building?” Jiminez asked this reporter. “Each of the segments comes in one of those rail cars. We bring it in, take the cover off. They will come with handling rings on them.”

Jiminez then showed me a huge pair of raised eyelets. “And you can see the ears there. That’s what we use to pick them up. We take the two cranes both at the same time, pick them up, break it over, [and] rotate it vertically. It goes onto a pallet, and then it goes in one of those buildings that you see outside.”

“So there’s two surge buildings where we actually store the ordinance installed walking motors,” Jiminez added. “And then what stays here is the aft assemblies.”

Those aft assemblies are the tail end of each solid booster. They include the nozzles used to direct thrust from the solid rocket as it burns. “We have the skirts, which holds a TVC system. You have the nozzle. We put that on. And then the last segment [of the solid rocket motor.] So the aft part of that segment, the last one goes on top of that one. And that makes the aft assembly for the left and the right hand [boosters.]”

If it sounds complex, it is. Those assemblies must be assembled with great precision, which is no easy task when you consider just how big and heavy each segment is and how precisely the assembly must be assembled.

Jiminez pointed out that the solid rocket booster segments are, “Essentially primed and ready to go. What’s left for the VAB is obviously get all the facility ready.”

He added, “More importantly, we get the ground systems ready. So, we’re finishing up all of the testing of the systems that we have for Artemis II. It’s a crewed mission. So there are some systems that have to be updated for the Mobile Launcher Platform. That’s out at the pad.”

Currently, testing is ongoing and presumably nearing completing in the relatively near term for the Mobile Launcher Platform. Afterwards, it will be moved into the VAB, and once the MLP is ready, the first thing that will be assembled for Artemis II will be the Solid Rocket Boosters.

“As soon as we’re done with the testing there, towards the end of the summer, we’re gonna roll back the mobile launcher, get back into the VAB, configure everything in the position it needs to be so that it can take these bad boys in for stacking,” Jiminez said while gesturing towards one of the two SRB aft assemblies in the SPFS facility.

Assembly Ahead

Afterwards, the Solid Rocket Boosters can be fully assembled, and then Core Stage will be placed in between the two completed SRBs, then the rest of the rocket — including the Orion capsule — can be placed atop that. Once that is done, a long testing phase will begin. “It’s gonna be a really busy summer,” Jiminez said. “[Then a] really busy fall. It’s gonna be a busy year because once you put it all together, then you have to go test it.”

Testing, Verifying and Fixing Any Issues

“The testing campaign is another big endeavor. Now, we have all the ground systems hooked up to the rocket. We’re going to go into then launch control center. That’s where we are using all the software that we develop to be able to do the testing and the launch that we get in there, we get with all the teams, test all the systems, make sure that we’re good configuration, and from there on up to launch.”

That will like an incredibly busy time, with hundreds of people dedicated to readying the ground-side systems like the Mobile Launch Platform, the launch pad systems, and then assembling a huge rocket larger and more powerful than the venerable Saturn V that was used in Project Apollo.

Once completed, the engineers and technicians involved with the project must verify the newly assembled rocket’s systems, conduct launch rehearsals and fix any issues that they encounter along the way.

All of that before a final review to confirm that every “i” is dotted and every “t” is crossed prior to Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor J. Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen climbing aboard the Orion capsule for their mission to the moon.

All considered, it is a vast understatement to say that business has picked up at Kennedy Space Center, and that the journey that will take four NASA astronauts to the moon has already begun.

NOTE: Talk of Titusville would like to thank Daniel Jimenez for taking the time to explain not only his role in the Artemis II mission but also to explain what the current and next steps for the mission will be.