While NASA is still Earth-bound, at least in regards to manned spaceflight, the space agency is already preparing for the next generation of manned launch vehicle: the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. However, despite the maiden voyage for the SLS being years away, NASA has already constructed a massive, mobile launch tower for the rocket that will, hopefully, take us to Mars one day.
In a spectacular photo gallery posted on Space.com, one can get all sorts of views of the 355-foot launch tower, including a few taken from the top!
In the press conference that unveiled the rocket, NASA chief Charles Bolden declared that “the next chapter of America's space exploration story is being written today” and that “President Obama challenged us to be bold and dream big, and that's exactly what we are doing.” For NASA, the SLS will be the vehicle that will take America far deeper into space than any nation has ever gone before, namely to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars by the mid 2030s. As for the space capsule itself, it will sit atop the 400 foot rocket and is based, in large part, on designs for the Orion capsule that was to take astronauts to the Moon with Constellation.
When it comes to technology, the SLS will be a combination of old and new to both take advantages of new technological capabilities and of existing knowledge and hardware mastered through decades of manned spaceflight. While recycled technology will come from the Space Shuttle and Constellation's Aries V rocket, the SLS is no hodgepodge of old parts as it incorporates much new technology, especially in the rocket's core stages.
If all goes according to plan, the first test flight will come in 2017.
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