This artist concept shows boosters separating from NASA’s Space Launch System. The first flight test of NASA’s new rocket is scheduled for 2017. The Space Launch System, or SLS, will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment and science experiments to Earth’s orbit and destinations beyond.
America’s new heavy-lift rocket will be the largest launch vehicle ever built and more powerful than the Saturn V rocket that carried Apollo astronauts to the moon. The 70-metric-ton configuration (77 tons) will lift more than 154,000 pounds and will provide 10 percent more thrust than the Saturn V rocket. The 130-metric-ton-configuration (143 tons) will lift more than 286,000 pounds and provide 20 percent more thrust than the Saturn V. The first SLS mission — Exploration Mission 1 — in 2017 will launch an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to demonstrate the integrated system performance of the SLS rocket and spacecraft prior to a crewed flight.
Note: artist concept updated Sept. 13, 2013
Image credit: NASA/MSFC