The Orion Stage Adapter (pictured above) is a big part of the Artemis II mission, which will send four astronauts around the moon next year. All of the hardware was built and engineered at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsvllle. The adapter connects the SLS rocket's interim cryogenic propulsion stage to NASA's Orion spacecraft.
"It's five feet tall, sits right below the European Service Module, which has the Orion above it, where the astronauts sit," said A.J. Gallemore, a materials and process engineer at MSFC. "The importance of this piece? It's a critical piece in the stack."
All of the other elements of the SLS rocket are stacked in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This next step in the process, getting this adapter stacked in Florida, is a critical move so NASA can stack the Orion on top of the SLS rocket.
This Orion adapter will also carry experiments in what are called CubeSats. Five of them are from four other countries. Those experiments will study radiation, space weather and technology for lunar vehicles. And those CubeSats are about the size of a shoebox.
"They can pack a lot of science in the CubeSat," said Russell Lane, SLS Payload Integration Lead. "They have propulsion systems, radio systems, electrical power systems, batteries, all the science instrumentation for what they want to do, so a lot of capability that they can pack into a pretty small package."
It's taken about a year for this final integration stage of the Orion adapter at Marshall Space Flight Center. The project generates a lot of pride at MSFC, with engineers knowing they're playing a huge role in NASA's deep space journey.
"Seeing hardware complete is one of the best villains," said Monique Wallace, Orion Deputy Lead. "It's kind of surreal being able to be this close to hardware and something that's going to sit on top of the actual rocket that's going to be launched."
The adapter will ship to KSC in Florida next week. The tentative date for the Artemis II launch is April, 2026.