August 2018 — Inside NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, this massive blue structure is the Vertical Weld Center, used to fabricate the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The machine employs friction-stir welding to join aluminum panels into large cylindrical sections that form the rocket’s fuel tanks. Operated by precision robotics, the weld center is one of the tallest of its kind in the world and plays a central role in preparing hardware for Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.