WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

An Iowa Northern locomotive contracted by Goodloe Transportation of Chicago, carrying the second of two pathfinders, or test versions, of solid rocket booster segments for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, approaches the Rotation, Processing and Surge Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In the background is the mobile launcher. Inside the RPSF, the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program and industry partners will unpack the booster segment, which is inert, from its container and prepare it for a series of lifts, moves and stacking operations to prepare for Exploration Mission-1, deep-space missions and the journey to Mars.