Space2 min read
Space
NASA Installs Historic Space Shuttle Engines on Artemis III Rocket
Technicians at Kennedy Space Center began installing four RS-25 engines — one of which flew on John Glenn's 1998 return to space — into the core stage of the SLS rocket that will carry the Artemis III crew into low…
Step by step
- 1
RS-25 engines flew space shuttle missions
- 2
Each engine's serial number tracks history
- 3
Technicians install engines into SLS core stage
- 4
SLS launches Artemis III crew in 2027
On Aug. 24, technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida began installing four RS-25 engines — powerful liquid-fuel engines that also flew on the space shuttle — into the , the section of the rocket that holds its main engines and fuel, of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The SLS will carry the Artemis III crew into , the region of space closest to Earth, in 2027.
Each carries a unique serial number that records its detailed flight history. The four engines assigned to Artemis III — E2054, E2057, E2048 and E2052 — previously powered multiple space shuttle missions.
Engine 2048 helped launch NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik's earlier mission aboard space shuttle Atlantis during STS-129.
The same engine also flew on space shuttle Discovery during STS-95 in 1998, the mission that returned 77-year-old space pioneer U.S. Sen. John Glenn to orbit, making him the oldest person to fly in space at that time.
Terms explained
The story so far
- ETH Zurich Feeds 100 Petabytes of NASA Data Into a Supercomputer to Speed Up Disaster Forecasting
- NASA Demonstrates Satellites Can Navigate in Space Without GPS
- NASA, IBM Release Open-Source AI Model to Study the Moon
- NASA Calls on the Public to Help Clean Up Space Telescope Data
- NASA Pledges Open Access to All Artemis Moon Science
- NASA Satellite Catches Fall Colors Already Sweeping the Arctic Tundra
- NASA Installs Historic Space Shuttle Engines on Artemis III Rocket
#NASA#Artemis III#SLS#RS-25 engines#John Glenn
Rate this story