Huntsville, AL – November 12, 2020- Teledyne Brown Engineering (TBE) has been awarded a $85M contract modification to supply NASA two additional Launch Vehicle Stage Adapters (LVSA) for the Artemis II and III moon missions. The LVSA’s are the largest pieces of the current configuration of the Space Launch System (SLS) to be built at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, AL.

The LVSA provides the physical interface between the SLS Core Stage and the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS). It also serves as the critical separation system used to separate the Core Stage of the rocket from ICPS. The cone-shaped adapter is roughly thirty feet in diameter by thirty feet tall and consists of sixteen Aluminum-Lithium 2195 alloy panels.

“TBE is thrilled to be a part of the monumental Artemis spaceflight moon missions, providing its 2nd and 3rd LVSA units which further solidify our prominence in designing and building spaceflight hardware,” stated Jan Hess, President of Teledyne Brown Engineering. “We are proud to continue our decades long partnership with MSFC, where our teams have worked tirelessly to help propel our nation beyond the Earth’s gravity.”

Artemis II is planned to launch in 2023 on a crewed mission to perform a lunar flyby. Artemis III is currently scheduled to launch in 2024, as the second crewed Artemis mission. It will include a landing at the Moon’s south polar region where two astronauts, including the first woman to walk on the moon, will reside for a week.

Teledyne Brown Engineering is contracted to provide the engineering, technical support, and hardware to NASA for two additional LVSA units. The company delivered the LVSA Structural Test Article in 2016 and Flight Unit 1 in July 2020.