On April 20, 2026, the top four-fifths of the Artemis III Space Launch System core stage rolled out of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and was loaded onto the Pegasus barge for a sea journey to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA recently launched the Artemis II mission, sending a crew to orbit the moon.

During the mission, the Artemis II astronauts became the first people to see much of the lunar far side — the side of the moon that permanently faces away from Earth — with their own eyes.