Artemis III Boosters Are Stacked
NASA has finished stacking the twin solid rocket boosters for its Artemis III Moon rocket and installed all four RS-25 engines on the core stage, the agency said in an Oct. 13 status update.
Written on Oct. 16, 2026 from the source documents listed below, after the dates it covers.
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The story
NASA said on Oct. 13 that the Space Launch System rocket for Artemis III has reached a milestone at Kennedy Space Center in Florida: both solid rocket boosters are fully stacked. Engineers finished on Sept. 30 by adding the aerodynamic nose cones to the forward assemblies of the twin boosters inside the Vehicle Assembly Building.
The boosters will provide more than 75 percent of the rocket's thrust at liftoff. Teams have also installed all four RS-25 engines on the core stage.
NASA plans to roll the short stack to Launch Pad 39B in the coming months for a tanking test, where the launch team will practice loading propellant.
Next, technicians will install the systems tunnel that runs along the core stage and carries cabling, then join the stage to the boosters in what NASA calls a short stack configuration. NASA plans to roll the short stack to Launch Pad 39B in the coming months for a tanking test, where the launch team will practice loading propellant.
While at the pad, the Artemis III crew, NASA astronauts Randy Bresnick, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, will rehearse launch day and walk through the emergency exit route. Other hardware is moving too.
NASA said the pad's flame deflector is being refurbished after minimal damage from the Artemis II launch, ESA and Airbus engineers inspected the solar array wings for the Orion service module, and the Artemis III spacer and two stage adapters remain on track to ship to Kennedy early next year.
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Image and footage credits: Lead image: NASA/Cory S Huston · NASA Images and Media Usage Guidelines (NASA content generally not subject to U.S. copyright) · NASA/Amanda Stevenson · NASA Images and Media Usage Guidelines (NASA content generally not subject to U.S. copyright)
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Australia's Spider Crater, Seen From Space
A Landsat 9 image published by NASA's Earth Observatory on Oct. 13 shows the Spider Crater in Western Australia's Kimberley region, the eroded remains of an ancient meteorite impact.
