Booster Delivery Marks NASA Artemis II Moon Mission Milestone

After returning its mobile launch pad to Kennedy Space Center in August, NASA is putting the pieces together for its next marquee mission.

Jack Daleo

Wednesday, September 27, 2023 at 02:49 PM ET

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Artemis II astronauts (left to right: Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Jeremy Hanson) stand in front of Northrop Grumman’s twin solid booster rocket segments. [Courtesy: Northrop Grumman]

Key Takeaways:

Northrop Grumman delivered critical booster motor segments for NASA's Artemis II mission, maintaining the current schedule for the program's first crewed flight around the Moon.
Artemis II will send four astronauts, including the first woman and person of color, on a 10-day lunar flyby, serving as a vital test for future crewed lunar landings.
The mission relies on NASA's powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which utilizes twin solid rocket boosters and core stage engines to generate 8.8 million pounds of thrust.
While hardware deliveries are progressing, the launch timeline for Artemis II could still face delays of up to several years, and Artemis III's crewed lunar landing might slip to 2026 or beyond due to issues with the Starship lunar lander.

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In order for NASA to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17—more than half a century ago—the space agency has some work to do. But at a glance, things appear to be on schedule for Artemis, which is essentially NASA’s resurrection of the Apollo program.

Northrop Grumman on Tuesday delivered 10 booster motor segments, which the space agency will use for its Artemis II mission, to Kennedy Space Center in Florida from its manufacturing plant in Utah. The delivery should keep NASA on track to launch the first crewed Artemis mission, which is expected to send four astronauts on a jaunt around the moon in November 2024—so long as prelaunch activities continue to go as planned.