In less than a year, in November 2021, the 65-meter long, powerful, flexible and – not to mention – very expensive rocket must make its maiden flight.
After years of planning, tinkering, testing and further testing, NASA started assembling their first Space Launch System (SLS for short) this week. Since the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011, America has been dependent on Russia for manned space missions. NASA’s SLS must change that.
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Giga-racket
The SLS consists of a hefty 65 meter core with four giant RS-25 engines, with two fuel boosters on either side. The boosters provide 75 percent of the propulsion needed to get the spacecraft off the ground. For that, the booster will add a good six tons of solid fuel for each flight.
This week, NASA engineers started working on the Vehicle Assembly
Building (VAB) in Florida to assemble the individual parts of this first SLS launch vehicle – the successor to the space shuttle. The first ten booster segments were placed on the 115-meter-high mobile launcher after which, once built, it will eventually be transported to the launch pad.
The orange foam-shrouded core, the central part of the missile, is covered in January shipped from New Orleans to Mississippi by boat, is undergoing a number of further tests there. The last two of these so-called Green Run tests are scheduled for the next few weeks.
Maanmissie 2.0
If all goes according to plan, the SLS will make its maiden flight as part of the Artemis-I mission in November 2021. Unmanned spacecraft Orion, will then make a round of the moon in preparation for the real mission three years later. In November 2024, NASA plans to put the first woman and the next man on the moon.
Beeld: NASA
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