Exploration Ground Systems, based at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, develops and operates the systems and facilities needed to process and launch rockets and spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis missions. EGS plays a primary role in assembly, launch, and recovery of rockets and spacecraft. EGS has helped transform Kennedy Space Center from a historically government-only launch complex to a spaceport that can handle several different kinds of spacecraft and rockets – both government and commercial.
Unlike previous work focusing on a single kind of launch vehicle, such as the Saturn V or space shuttle, EGS is preparing the infrastructure to support several different kinds of spacecraft and rockets that are in development, including NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft for Artemis I. A key aspect of the program’s approach to long term sustainability and affordability is to make processing and launch infrastructure available to commercial and other government customers, thereby distributing the cost among multiple users and reducing the cost of access to space.
To meet this challenge, EGS has upgraded Launch Pad 39B, the crawler-transporters, the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), the Launch Control Center’s Young-Crippen Firing Room 1, the mobile launcher (ML), and other facilities.
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