NASA finishes Artemis III booster stacking; core stage joins next to complete the short stack

NASA

NASA finished stacking the solid rocket boosters for Artemis III on September 30, 2026, inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center. Next, the core stage is to be integrated with the boosters to complete a short stack, which will roll to Launch Pad 39B for a tanking test in the coming months. The boosters will provide more than 75 percent of SLS thrust at liftoff.

• Nose cones were attached to the left and right forward assemblies; all four RS-25 engines are installed on the core stage.
• The systems tunnel carrying pyrotechnic cabling goes in along the core stage before core-stage integration, due in the coming weeks.
• At the pad, the flame deflector is being refurbished after minimal damage from the Artemis II launch.
• The Orion stage adapter, launch vehicle stage adapter and Artemis III spacer are on track to ship to Kennedy early next year.