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Media Invited to See NASA’s Super Guppy, SLS Test Hardware at MSFC

The headshot image of Beth Ridgeway

Beth Ridgeway

Aug 08, 2022
MEDIA ADVISORYM22-010

Media are invited to see NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft at 9 a.m. CT Wednesday, Aug. 10 before it departs the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The specialized aircraft with its unique hinged nose is arriving at Marshall Aug. 9 with a structural test article of part of NASA’s mega Moon rocket. 

The Orion stage adapter (OSA) structural test article is structurally identical to its flight version on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The hardware was used in test campaigns at Marshall and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is being returned to Marshall for storage.

NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft stationed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. in 2018. The aircraft has a unique shape that allows it to carry bulky or heavy hardware that could not otherwise fit on a traditional aircraft.
NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft is stationed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. when it last arrived at North Alabama in 2018. The aircraft has a unique shape that allows it to carry bulky or heavy hardware that could not otherwise fit on a traditional aircraft. Credits: NASA/MSFC/Emmett Given

The OSA connects the rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage, or in-space propulsion stage, to NASA’s Orion spacecraft. During NASA’s upcoming Artemis I flight test, the adapter will deploy 10 different CubeSats, or small satellites, to conduct various science and technology demonstrations in deep space. 

Subject matter experts with the Super Guppy, Space Launch System Program, and Marshall test facilities will be available for short interviews. 

Event space is limited. Media interested in attending should contact Janet Sudnik in the Marshall Office of Communications at 256-617-9617 or janet.m.sudnik@nasa.gov no later than noon Tuesday, Aug. 9. Media must report to the Redstone Arsenal Visitors Center at Gate 9 on Rideout Road by 8 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10, where they will meet media escorts. Vehicles are subject to a security search at the gate. Media will need photo identification and proof of automobile insurance. All attendees must wear close-toed shoes and should not wear loose clothing.

All visitors to NASA facilities are required to complete a certification of vaccination for COVID-19 form. Those who are not fully vaccinated or decline to provide their vaccination status must provide a negative COVID- 19 test, conducted within the previous 72 hours. Masks are required for all persons during the media event.

Through Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone to send astronauts to Mars.

Learn more about NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center at:

https://www.nasa.gov/marshall

Janet Sudnik 
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-617-9617
janet.m.sudnik@nasa.gov 
Corinne Edmiston
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 
256-975-6798
corinne.m.edmiston@nasa.gov