NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle that provides the foundation for human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit. With its unprecedented power and capabilities, SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and cargo directly to the Moon on a single mission. Offering more payload mass, volume capability, and energy, SLS, the world’s most powerful rocket, can carry more payload to deep space than any other vehicle. The SLS rocket is designed to be evolvable, which makes it possible to fly more types of missions, including human missions to the Moon and Mars and robotic scientific missions to places like the Moon, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter. The SLS team has delivered and is preparing for the Artemis I mission, NASA’s first exploration-class rocket built for human space travel since the Saturn V. Engineers and industry partners are making progress toward delivering rockets for the next several Artemis missions. To fulfill America’s future needs for deep space missions, SLS will evolve into increasingly more powerful configurations. SLS is designed for deep space missions and will send Orion or other cargo to the Moon, which is nearly 1,000 times farther than where NASA’s International Space Station resides in low-Earth orbit. The high-performance rocket will provide the power to help Orion reach a speed of 24,500 miles per hour—the speed needed to send it to the Moon. Every SLS configuration uses the core stage with four RS-25 engines. The first SLS vehicle, called Block 1, can send more than 27 metric tons (t) or 59,500 pounds (lbs.) to orbits beyond the Moon. It will be powered by twin five-segment solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 liquid propellant engines. After reaching space, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS ) sends Orion on to the Moon. The first three Artemis missions will use a Block 1 rocket with an ICPS. Block 1B crew vehicle will use a new, more powerful Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) to enable more ambitious missions. The Block 1B vehicle can, in a single launch, carry the Orion crew vehicle along with large cargos for exploration systems needed to support a sustained presence on the Moon. The Block 1B crew vehicle can send 38 t (83,700 lbs.) to deep space including Orion and its crew. Launching with cargo only, SLS has a large volume payload fairing to send larger exploration systems to the Moon and Mars or for science spacecraft on solar system exploration missions. The next SLS configuration, Block 2, will provide 9.5 million lbs. of thrust and will be the workhorse vehicle for sending cargo to the Moon, Mars, and other deep space destinations. SLS Block 2 will be designed to lift more than 46 t (101,400 lbs.) to deep space. An evolvable design provides the nation with a rocket able to pioneer new human and robotic spaceflight missions. Artemis I, the first integrated flight of SLS and Orion, uses the Block 1 configuration, which stands 322 feet, taller than the Statue of Liberty, and weighs 5.75 million lbs. During launch and ascent, SLS will produce 8.8 million lbs. of maximum thrust, 15 percent more thrust than the Saturn V rocket. For Artemis I, Block 1 will launch an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to an orbit 40,000 miles beyond the Moon, or 280,000 miles from Earth. This mission will demonstrate the integrated system performance of SLS, Orion, and Exploration Ground Systems prior to a crewed flight. The Artemis II mission will send astronauts on a flight to orbit the Moon. These missions pave the way for landing astronauts on the Moon. NASA is building the rockets needed for several missions. To reduce cost and development time, NASA is upgrading proven hardware from the space shuttle and other exploration programs while making use of cutting-edge tooling and manufacturing technology. Some parts of the rocket are new and other parts have been upgraded with modern features that meet the needs of deep space missions, which require higher launch vehicle performance levels. The Boeing Company, in Huntsville, Alabama, builds the SLS core stages, including the avionics that controls the vehicle during flight. Towering more than 212 feet with a diameter of 27.6 feet, the core stage stores 730,000 gallons of super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that fuel the RS-25 engines. Core stages are built at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans using state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, including a friction stir welding tool that is the largest of its kind in the world. The core stage is the newest part of the rocket, and it successfully completed its one and only planned Green Run test series at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. With the Artemis I core stage complete, Boeing is building stages for the next few Artemis missions. The SLS avionics computer software is developed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.
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