NASA's New Mega-Rocket (SLS), Orion Capsule on Track for Future Test Flights

Artist's rendering of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket being stacked inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).

Credit: NASA

A new era of space exploration, supported by a history-making new mega-rocket and a spacecraft designed to deliver humans into deep space, could be on the horizon for NASA.

The space agency is gearing up to build the largest and most powerful rocket in history.

The huge launcher, called the Space Launch System (SLS), will move a new spacecraft dubbed Orion, designed to send up to four astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before.

A short list of destinations includes the moon, nearby asteroids and, eventually, Mars.

Everyone is looking forward to 2021, the year when the first manned launch will occur but before that happens, the rocket and spacecraft will have to pass a number of tests.



Most powerful rocket ever
NASA's SLS rocket might remind some space fans of the mighty Saturn V rocket used to launch Apollo moon landing flights in the 1960s and 1970s; however, the new launcher will be more powerful.

NASA currently envisions the SLS in two configurations: one weighing 77 tons and able to lift more than 154,000 pounds, another weighing 143 tons and able to lift more than 286,000 pounds.

The smaller configuration, which is expected to carry a crew of astronauts, will create 8.4 million pounds of thrust, 10 percent more than the massive Saturn V rocket.

The larger configuration, which will carry cargo, will create 9.2 million pounds of thrust, 20 percent more than a Saturn V.

This version will be as tall as a 38-story building. The SLS will truly be a mountain of a machine.

For its power, the SLS will rely on two solid rocket boosters in addition to the huge, 200-foot-tall (61 meters) core stage, which will carry liquid hydrogen and oxygen to fuel four RS-25 rocket engine.

The RS-25 rocket engine is a workhorse: It powered the space shuttle and "operated with 100-percent mission success during 135 space shuttle missions," according to a NASA statement.

The power produced by the three engines is equal to that from 12 Hoover Dams.

NASA currently has a stockpile of 16 RS-25 rocket engines at the Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi.

The engines themselves had to be modified to put out more power than they did for the space shuttle missions, and therefore still require testing. Those tests will probably occur in mid-July, NASA has said.

American Classics

NASA Sguttle Atlantis (retired)

Shuttle Atlantis is moved from its processing hangar to the VAB & is being prepared for public display next year.

Credit: Nasa

NASA Shuttles Discovery and Endeavour Mothballed: No country for old technology?

Retired Shuttles Endeavour & Discovery "nose to nose" outside Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building

Shuttle Discovery moves away from Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building

Shuttle Endeavour begins its move out of Kennedy's Orbiter Processing Facility-1

NASA Shuttle Discovery Mothballed

Discovery rolled into the VAB this morning to make room for the return of Shuttle Atlantis next week.

NASA - The Osprey Has Landed

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an adult osprey guards its young in a nest built on a platform in the Press Site parking lot.

In the background is the 12,300-square-foot NASA logo painted on the side of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).

 The VAB and Press Site are located at the Turn Basin in Launch Complex 39, making it an ideal osprey nesting place.

The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge overlaps with Kennedy Space Center property and provides a habitat for many types of wildlife, including the osprey, and 330 species of birds. For information on the refuge, visit http://www.fws.gov/merrittisland/Index.

Image Credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

NASA Shuttle Atlantis: Final Rollover

Shuttle Atlantis makes its final planned move from Orbiter Processing Facility-1 to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The move, called "rollover," is a major milestone in processing for the STS-135 mission to the International Space Station, targeted for early July.

Inside the VAB, the shuttle will be attached to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters.

Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim were on hand for the move.

Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

Space Shuttle Discovery's Final Launch

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, shuttle Discovery pauses in between Orbiter Processing Facility-3 and the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) during a move called "rollover" on September 9th, 2010.

Once inside the VAB, the shuttle will be joined to its solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank. Later, Discovery was scheduled to "rollout" to Launch Pad 39A for its launch to the International Space Station on the STS-133 mission.

(NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis)

More marvellous collection of images from the history of Discovery at the Atlantic website

NASA Shuttle Discovery Readied - Looking good for an old lady

Space shuttle Discovery will be attached to its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters today in NASA Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building.

The shuttle is being prepared for its rollout to Launch Pad 39A, scheduled for March 2 at 12:01 a.m. EST.

At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Discovery's STS-131 crew members will be reviewing administrative and Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, or MPLM, berthing and unberthing procedures today.

MPLMs are large pressurized modules flown in the shuttle's payload bay and attached to the International Space Station after docking. The MPLM can carry up to 16 large containers or racks of supplies, such as food, clothing, spare parts and research equipment. For this flight, the MPLMs will be filled with science racks that will be transferred to the station's laboratories.

Discovery's liftoff is targeted for April 5 at 6:27 a.m. EDT.

NASA: Vehicle Assembly Building Kennedy Space Centre

Architects Remember the Building that Helped Put a Man on the Moon
Forty years later, Max Urbahn’s contribution to the space race stands tall

Summary: As tall as a 52-story building and as wide as a city block, the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida cuts a stark and lonely profile along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. A brick-like rectilinear mass that’s almost totally devoid of human-scaled features, it’s a hyperbole--a simple, exaggerated sketch of a building.