The next generation of NASA’s Space Launch System — the most powerful rocket ever built — will be 364 feet tall in the crew configuration, deliver a 105-metric-ton (115-ton) lift capacity and feature a powerful exploration upper stage. On SLS’s second flight with NASA’s Orion exploration spacecraft, designed to carry astronauts to a variety of deep-space destinations, the new rocket will carry up to four astronauts on a mission around the moon, in the deep-space proving ground for the technologies and capabilities needed on NASA’s Journey to Mars. Building on its half-century legacy of propulsion and launch vehicle development, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is leading SLS construction and testing for the agency.
Image credit: NASA/MSFC