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You are currently located inside the Vertical Assembly Center
at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility.
You are suspended beside the robotic weld tool that
manufactured all the major structures that will make
up the core stage for Exploration Mission-1,
the first flight of the Space Launch System
and Orion spacecraft.
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This is the Space Launch System Intertank structural
test article.
The Intertank has been loaded on a space transporter
designed to move the large pieces of the core stage.
The Intertank fits between the LH2 tank and the LOX tank
and is the only piece of the core stage that is made by
pieces together rather than welding.
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To make big rockets you need a big space.
The Michoud rocket factory could hold 31 football fields.
Seen here are a few of the robotic weld tools
in the facility used to make domes and barrels for SLS.
Domes for the second flight for SLS have been built
These domes form the ends of the large tanks
that hold more than 700,000 gallons of propellent
for the four RS-25 engines.
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Here the Intertank flight hardware is being outfitted with
thousands of avionics, wires and cables which
are the brains of the rocket.
If you look behind you can see the tank that will
hold the liquid oxygen.
These two pieces of hardware will be joined with the
forward skirt to form the top half
of the 212-foot-long core stage.
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NASA’s barge Pegasus comes in handy
when moving all the large hardware for testing and flight.
The barge was lengthened and strengthened to be able
to move the SLS core stage,the largest
rocket stage NASA has ever built.
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From the control room at the front of the barge
the crew can look ahead and still keep an
eye on the hardware through the door behind you.
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The Intertank was loaded onto Pegasus and
is now at Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville Alabama where it is undergoing tests to ensure
it can survive the harsh environments
during launch and ascent.
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