Image of the Month

January 2021 - The final panel is lifted into place on a CS3 engine section barrel assembly inside Building 115 of the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility on Thursday, January 7, 2021.

February 2021 - The Artemis II Forward Skirt is lifted and moved inside building 103 at Michoud Assembly Facility on Friday, February 19, 2021.

March 2021 - Technicians apply primer to the Artemis III engine section in Cell G of Building 114 at NASA Michoud Assembly Facility. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker

April 2021 - Artemis II Forward Skirt

May 2021 - This image highlights the liquid oxygen tank, which will be used on the core stage of NASA’ Space Launch System rocket for Artemis II, the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis program, at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility. The SLS core stage is made up of five unique elements: the forward skirt, liquid oxygen tank, intertank, liquid hydrogen tank, and the engine section. The forward skirt houses flight computers, cameras, and avionics systems. The liquid oxygen tank holds 196,000 gallons of liquid oxygen cooled to minus 297 degrees Fahrenheit. The LOX hardware sits between the core stage’s forward skirt and the intertank. Along with the liquid hydrogen tank, it will provide fuel to the four RS-25 engines at the bottom of the core stage to produce more than two million pounds of thrust to launch NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon. Together with its four RS-25 engines, the rocket’s massive 212-foot-tall core stage — the largest stage NASA has ever built — and its twin solid rocket boosters will produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts and supplies beyond Earth’s orbit to the Moon and, ultimately, Mars. Offering more payload mass, volume capability and energy to speed missions through space, the SLS rocket, along with NASA’s Gateway in lunar orbit, the Human Landing System, and Orion spacecraft, is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration and the Artemis lunar program. No other rocket can send astronauts in Orion around the Moon in a single mission. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker

June 2021 - The Artemis III engine section is lifted out of Cell G in Building 114 at NASA Michoud Assembly Facility. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker

December 2021 - A nearly total eclipse of November’s full “Beaver Moon” occurs over the city of New Orleans. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker