NASA (www.nasa.gov) has contracted Boeing to produce 10 Space Launch System (SLS) core stages and up to eight Exploration Upper Stages for the third through to the 12th Artemis missions (with options for up to 10 more).

SLS is NASA’s deep-space exploration rocket, which will take astronauts (in the 27-tonne Orion
crew vehicle) plus cargo from Earth to the Moon — and eventually to Mars.

Boeing (www.boeing.com) is the prime contractor for the rocket’s core stage, avionics and variations of the upper stage.

Jim Chilton, senior vice-president of Boeing’s Space and Launch division, said: “We greatly appreciate the confidence NASA has placed in Boeing to deliver this deep-space rocket and its endorsement of our team’s approach to meeting this unprecedented technological and manufacturing challenge in support of the Artemis programme.

"Together with a nation-wide network of innovative suppliers, we will deliver the first core stage for Artemis I to NASA this year.

The team is already implementing lessons learned and innovative practices from the first build to produce a second core stage more efficiently than the first.”

John Shannon, Boeing vice-president and Space Launch System programme manager, said: “Boeing has implemented advanced manufacturing technologies for design, test and production of the core stages, which will make both core-stage production and upper-stage development faster, more-efficient and safer.

"The evolvable nature of the rocket will allow us to take on board new advances in materials and production technologies, as we move forward to the Moon and on to Mars.”