Vertical Weld Center at NASA Michoud Assembly Facility

Inside NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, the Vertical Weld Center is shown — a precision friction-stir welding system used to join the massive aluminum alloy panels that form rocket fuel tanks and core stages for the Space Launch System. The bright blue and yellow structures are part of the tooling system that ensures millimeter-level accuracy during assembly, critical for the Artemis program’s deep space missions. Related photographs from the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where NASA’s Space Launch System core stages are assembled for Artemis missions.