Overview
- The top four-fifths of the SLS core stage for Artemis III, which arrived Monday, moved into NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building on Tuesday for mating with the engine section and four RS‑25 engines.
- NASA leaders now target no earlier than late 2027 for Artemis III, and the flight has been re-scoped to an Earth‑orbit rendezvous and docking test with commercial lunar landers and the AxEMU suit, pending partner readiness.
- Orion from Artemis II returned to Kennedy on Tuesday for inspections, and early checks show the heat shield lost far less char than Artemis I after NASA tweaked the reentry angle and validated materials in arc‑jet tests.
- NASA said Artemis II’s laser terminal downlinked about 484 gigabytes at up to 260 megabits per second to ground telescopes in California, New Mexico, and Australia, showing how optical links can deliver high‑definition video and data at lunar distance.
- Routine crew flights continue in parallel, with SpaceX’s Crew‑13 targeted for mid‑September to carry Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk, and Sergey Teteryatnikov to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew program.