Artemis III Weather Shield Core Stage Timelapse

Teams transport a weather cover for the Artemis III SLS (Space Launch System) rocket core stage from NASA’s Pegasus barge to the spaceport’s Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, June 22, 2026. The cover will protect the stage’s thermal systems while SLS sits atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B in its short stack configuration. NASA will send four Artemis astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, establish an enduring human presence on the lunar surface, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.