Pathfinder to barge to MAF

A full-scale model of a Space Launch System core stage was recently completed at a plant in North Alabama and will soon be shipped to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The steel article was assembled at G&G Steel’s facility in Cordova. Radiance Technologies and Dynetics were contracted by NASA to build the Pathfinder, and G&G Steel performed the final welding and assembly. It will be delivered by barge using the Black Warrior River to New Orleans sometime in the next month. NASA will use the Pathfinder at MAF, Stennis Space Center, Miss., and Kennedy Space Center, Fla., to practice handling a fully assembled SLS core stage before they have to start doing it with the real thing as early as next year. (Source: NASA Spaceflight, 09/05/17)