NASA Commits To Building Heavy lift Rocket

NASA has finally revealed its design for the agency’s next-generation heavy-lift rocket to carry astronauts on future deep space missions.

The agency announced Sept. 14 that the Space Launch System (SLS) will include hardware and technology that are legacies from the space shuttle and now-defunct Constellation programs.

The $10 billion booster will use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel, and will have solid-rocket boosters for initial tests flights, agency officials said.

“The next chapter of America’s space exploration story is being written today,” NASA Administrator and former space shuttle astronaut Charles Bolden said during a news briefing held today in Washington to unveil the new rocket design.

“In combination with the crew capsule already in development, extension of activities on the International Space Station, fresh focus on new technologies, the new Space Launch System is key to implementing the plan laid out by President Obama and Congress in the bipartisan 2010 NASA Authorization Act.”

Using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel will enable NASA to reduce costs and leverage experience and existing technology in the field, Bolden explained.

Initial designs depict five solid-rocket boosters on either side of the SLS core, and early test flights will make use of this hardware. However, Bolden said the agency will ultimately hold a competition to replace these side-strapped boosters with more advanced designs or liquid-fueled rockets. 

The booster will have the capacity to lift 70 metric tons into space and will be the most powerful rocket since the Saturn 5 carried NASA astronauts to the Moon.

The SLS rocket’s first test flight is targeted for the end of 2017, with additional flights to follow, Bolden announced. Bolden was joined for the announcement by U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who have both been steadfast SLS supporters.