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SLS Fact Sheets

NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, is a powerful, advanced launch vehicle for a new era of human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B, Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B, Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA/Joel Kowsky

Learn more about the SLS mega rocket

SLS Overview Fact Sheet

NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) is a super heavy-lift rocket that provides the foundation for human exploration beyond Earth orbit. With its unprecedented capabilities, SLS is the only rocket that can send NASA’s Orion spacecraft, four astronauts, and large cargo directly to the Moon on a single launch.

SLS Core Stage Configuration

SLS (Space Launch System) Core Stage

NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) core stage is the tallest stage NASA has ever built. Towering 212 feet with a diameter of 27.6 feet, it stores cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen and all the systems that will feed the stage’s four RS-25 engines.

Meet the Rocket infographic

Meet the Rocket Infographic

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful and capable rocket NASA has ever built, will send missions farther and faster through space. SLS, along with NASA’s Orion spacecraft, the Gateway in lunar orbit and, the human landing system are the agency’s backbone for deep space exploration and the Artemis lunar program.

Starlings

SLS Advances Science & Technology

NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), will launch America into a new era of exploration to destinations beyond Earth’s orbit. In addition to demonstrating NASA’s new heavy-lift capability and sending the Orion spacecraft into deep space, SLS also has the capability to carry CubeSats to deep space.

Dan Mitchell, NASA’s lead SLS integrated avionics and software engineer (left), shows Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman (center) and Christina Koch (right) software test facilities at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

SLS Avionics

On Nov. 16, 2022, NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket launched for the first time. Lifting off the launch pad with over 8 million pounds of thrust and reaching space soaring at speeds of almost 25,000 miles per hour in just over 8 minutes requires more than power — it requires brains.

The interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS), a modified United Launch Alliance Delta Cryogenic Second Stage, provides 24,750 lbs. of thrust for in-space propulsion for the Block 1 crew and cargo vehicles.

SLS Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage

The SLS (Space Launch System) interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) is an in-space rocket stage that provides propulsion to the Orion spacecraft during the first three Artemis missions.

The Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) is a four-engine liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen in-space stage on the Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1B and Block 2 rockets. The EUS provides numerous advan- tages, such as increased payload mass to deep space destinations, daily launch opportunities, and enhanced safety features.

SLS Exploration Upper Stage

The Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) will enable the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s future configurations to launch NASA’s most ambitious human and robotic deep space missions.

Teams at KSC integrate the LVSA with the massive SLS core stage on the mobile launcher in the VAB. Engineers used one of five VAB cranes to lift the adapter almost 250-feet in the air and then slowly lower it on to the core stage.

SLS Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter

The cone-shaped launch vehicle stage adapter (LVSA) connects the interim cryogenic propulsion stage to the SLS (Space Launch System) core stage for the first three Artemis flights.

Space Launch System Lift Capabilities

SLS Lift Capabilities

Space Launch System Lift Capabilities

The Artemis II OSA (Orion stage adapter), built at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

SLS Orion Stage Adapter

The OSA (Orion stage adapter), built by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, connects the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage to NASA’s Orion spacecraft. The small ring structure is the topmost portion of the SLS rocket. 

Barge Pegasus docked in harbor at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

NASA's Pegasus Barge

NASA’s barge, Pegasus, will ferry the massive core stage of the agency’s new rocket, the Space Launch System, on journeys from the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to other NASA centers for testing and for launches.

A single RL10 engine will provide nearly 25,000 pounds of thrust and serve as the main propulsion for the ICPS that will fly atop the SLS rocket Block 1 in support of each of the first three Artemis missions.

SLS RL10 Engine

After successfully providing the in-space propulsion to send an uncrewed Orion space- craft to the Moon on Artemis I, the storied RL10 engine is ready to reprise that role on the Artemis II and III crewed lunar missions.

RS-25 engine callouts

SLS RS-25 Core Stage Engine

NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System), the most capable rocket in the world, is powered by RS-25 engines that combine proven performance with advanced engineering and technology. SLS will launch astronauts on the Artemis missions to the Moon and eventually expeditions to Mars

Artemis I boosters and core stage in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida (side view).

SLS Solid Rocket Boosters

The SLS booster is the largest, most powerful solid propellant booster ever built for flight.

The 537,000-gallon qualification test version of the liquid hydrogen tank for Space Launch System’s core stage willbe positioned between the towers of Test Stand 4693.

SLS Test Stands

Two new test stands are changing both the skyline at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and the future of space exploration.

The forward skirt assembly includes the nose cap and the forward skirt, or top part, of the SLS rocket booster.

Booster Fabrication Facility

The Booster Fabrication Facility (BFF) is a 45-acre site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, located near the Vehicle Assembly Building and the mobile launcher site.

The Space Launch System reaches Earth orbit with the power of two solid rocket boosters and a core stage with four RS-25 engines. From here, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage fires its RL10 engine to send the uncrewed Orion to the Moon for Artemis 1.

The Great Escape: SLS Provides Power for Missions to the Moon

Getting to the Moon requires a powerful rocket ship to accelerate a spacecraft fast enough to overcome the pull of Earth’s gravity and set it on a precise trajectory to its destination.

This artist’s concept shows NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) in its Block 1B crew configuration.

SLS Block 1B

NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) is the primary crew transportation to the Moon for the agency’s Artemis campaign. SLS Block 1B is a more powerful and versatile upgrade of the Block 1 variant that successfully launched the Artemis I uncrewed test flight to the Moon in November 2022.