After years of anticipation that began back in 2004 with the announcement of the Constellation Program, NASA has finally announced its new, heavy-lift rocket, dubbed the Space Launch System (SLS). The rocket will be the tallest and most powerful ever designed, about 40 feet taller and 20% more powerful than the Saturn Vs that carried astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo years.
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.
The good, immediate news, according to Bolden, is that the new NASA project, projected to cost around $3 billion a year through 2017, will “create good-paying American jobs, ensure continued U.S. leadership in space, and inspire millions around the world.” For America, this is truly an economic and moral boost the country needs as the retirement of the space shuttle cost thousands of Americans their jobs and, for the first time in 50 years, rendered America an Earth-bound nation.
One can only hope that politicians will not meddle with this space exploration plan as they did with Constellation.
For more info:
NASA press release
SLS web site
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