









NASA has unveiled an animation of a 320-foot-tall Space Launch System (SLS) that could be the most powerful in the agency's arsenal since the 363-foot-tall Saturn V moon rocket. Its destination? First it might go into low earth orbit, and then maybe on to the moon, the asteroids and even Mars.

According to NASA, the first version of the rocket will be capable of lifting 77 tons of cargo into low earth orbit, using technology developed during the Space Shuttle and Apollo eras. This makes the project less expensive, an even more-important factor given that the U.S. Congress has already cut 9% from NASA's budget this summer.

The two solid rocket boosters strapped onto either side of the rocket will use the same technology as the Space Shuttle's boosters, but will be one segment longer. In addition to those, the five hydrogen/oxygen-fueled engines are the same engines that powered the Shuttle orbiters. Powering the rocket's second stage will be a single J-2X engine — that's the same J2 engine that thrust the second stage of the moon rockets into space in the '60s and early '70s.

Even though there are no specific missions planned yet for the launch vehicle, nor did NASA mention a price for the project (but Aviation Week estimated the cost between now and 2017 to be $18 billion), NASA says the plan is to begin testing the vehicle in an unmanned launch in 2017, with the goal for the first manned launch set for 2021.

The goal is to begin a series of yearly voyages to asteroids in the year 2025. However, much can happen to government budgets over 14 years, and there will be intense competition from private-sector space projects, already underway, which might be able to build launch vehicles with similar or superior capabilities for less money.

Meanwhile, NASA would like to evolve the rocket's capability, and could call for a competition among designers and manufacturers to create more powerful kerosene-fueled boosters instead of the solid rocket boosters, thus increasing the vehicle's lift capacity to 130 tons. That launch vehicle would be more powerful than Saturn V.

NASA Space Launch System

Images courtesy NASA