NASA building giant Artemis 2 moon rocket ahead of 2024 launch

The giant rocket that will launch humanity's next crewed moon mission is coming together across the southern United States.

NASA plans to launch its Artemis 2 mission, which will send four astronauts around the moon, in late 2024. As the crew gets deep into their training, the hardware that will carry them to space — the Orion capsule and giant Space Launch System (SLS) rocket — is being readied at different NASA centers.

Meanwhile, at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, team members worked on a key piece that will support the Artemis 2 Orion spacecraft. Technicians rotated the stage adapter, which will connect Orion to the SLS upper stage (known as the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, or ICPS).

"The installation Nov. 30 marks one of the final steps for the adapter before it is readied for shipment to Kennedy via NASA's Super Guppy cargo aircraft," NASA officials wrote in a separate release on Monday (Dec. 11).

The adapter also bears the autographs of the four crew members, who visited in November: NASA commander Reid Wiseman, NASA pilot Victor Glover (who will become the first Black person to leave low Earth orbit (LEO)), NASA mission specialist Christina Koch (who will be the first woman to go beyond LEO) and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen (the first non-American to do so).