NASA officials said they have completed a rigorous review of SLS - the heavy-lift, exploration class rocket under development to take humans beyond Earth orbit and to Mars - and approved the programme’s progression from formulation to development, something no other exploration class vehicle has achieved since the agency built the space shuttle.
‘We are on a journey of scientific and human exploration that leads to Mars. And we’re firmly committed to building the launch vehicle and other supporting systems that will take us on that journey,’ said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
For its first flight test, SLS will be configured for a 70-metric-tonne lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit. In its most powerful configuration, SLS will provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tonnes, which will enable missions even farther into our solar system.
‘We are on a journey of scientific and human exploration that leads to Mars. And we’re firmly committed to building the launch vehicle and other supporting systems that will take us on that journey,’ said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
For its first flight test, SLS will be configured for a 70-metric-tonne lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit. In its most powerful configuration, SLS will provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tonnes, which will enable missions even farther into our solar system.