This Week @NASA: Media View Barge Pegasus and SLS Hardware

On May 16, NASA held a media event at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to highlight the recent arrival of the barge Pegasus with the first core stage test article for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. NASA modified Pegasus to accommodate the massive SLS core stage, increasing the barge's length and weight-carrying capacity. The core stage test article – manufactured at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility, in New Orleans – is the first of four core stage test articles scheduled to be delivered to Marshall for testing. This delivery marks a critical milestone toward Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), the first flight of SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft. It also brings the agency a step closer to sending humans to deep space destinations – including Mars. Also, Lightfoot Discusses Future Exploration Goals, Ochoa, Foale Inducted into Hall of Fame, and Virtual Tour of Meteorite Lab!

Credit: NASA