NASA reported on Oct. 28, 2026, that the Space Launch System core stage for Artemis III was integrated alongside the twin solid rocket boosters inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The agency described the work as completing the rocket's short stack configuration, with photographs credited to NASA's Sean Cannon, Cory S Huston and Frank Michaux.

According to the agency, technicians lifted the 212-foot stage from High Bay 2 using a lifting beam designed to place it onto the mobile launcher. Imagery from the preceding week showed the stage being lifted from the transfer aisle on Thursday, Oct. 22, positioned horizontally in the aisle on Friday, Oct. 23, and integrated with the boosters on Sunday, Oct. 25.

NASA said that once testing and checkouts are finished, teams plan to roll the core stage and booster stack to Launch Pad 39B for a tanking test. In that test, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen would be loaded only into the core stage, and launch teams would practice countdown procedures and timelines. The Artemis III mission is intended to send NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas, along with ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, in the Orion spacecraft atop the SLS rocket to test rendezvous and docking with commercial spacecraft from Blue Origin and SpaceX ahead of future missions to land astronauts on the Moon.