The Space Launch System (SLS), Orion spacecraft and commercial crew and cargo vehicles are complementing initiatives that will support NASA’s space exploration goals. The commercial crew and cargo launch vehicles will support human space operation in low-Earth orbit, which is creating a supply line to and from the International Space Station. These types of vehicles can travel to destinations hundreds of miles beyond Earth.
The SLS heavy-lift rocket is designed for missions beyond Earth’s orbit into deep space regions where humans have not traveled since Apollo sent humans to the moon more than 40 years ago. SLS offers more versatility and provides unsurpassed capability for humans in Orion to travel to an asteroid 40,000 miles beyond the moon and eventually to Mars more than a million miles away, and for robotic science mission to places such as Mars, Saturn and Jupiter.
Image credit: NASA