Historic Engines Take Their Place on Artemis III

On Aug. 24, technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida started installing the four RS-25 engines in the core stage of the Space Launch System rocket that will carry the Artemis III crew into low Earth orbit in 2027. Each engine carries a unique serial number documenting its detailed flight history, and the four assigned to Artemis III — E2054, E2057, E2048, and E2052 — previously powered multiple space shuttle missions.

Engine 2048 has a notable legacy: it helped launch NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik's earlier mission aboard space shuttle Atlantis during STS-129, and also flew on Space Shuttle Discovery during STS-95 in 1998 — the mission that returned 77-year-old U.S. Sen. John Glenn to orbit, making him the oldest person to fly in space at that time.