NASA has a big new rocket in the works, one designed to carry astronauts beyond earth orbit for the first time since the Saturn V took us to the moon. The Space Launch System will, among other things, make a trip to an asteroid, but before it can do that it must make a few trips to the wind tunnel.

The rocket's first mission beyond earth orbit isn't expected until 2017, assuming the program doesn't fall off a fiscal cliff. Right now, NASA engineers are busy finalizing the design of the launch vehicle, testing a 10-foot model in the agency's transonic tunnel in Langley, Virginia.

"The test includes the largest integrated vehicle model to be tested in a wind tunnel for SLS," says John Blevins, SLS Lead Engineer for Aerodynamics and Acoustics. "It will simulate the environment of transonic flight that the SLS rocket will navigate during its flight."

The model will be exposed to speeds up to Mach 1.2. There are 360 pressure transducers spread across the surface of the model, and data is acquired at a rate of thirteen thousand scans per second, according to NASA. The information gleaned from the wind tunnel tests will provide insight into the structural forces the SLS will endure during launch and acceleration from subsonic to supersonic flight.

The first mission will see the SLS launch the Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit as an initial check of the system. It will be an unmanned flight, but NASA hopes to fly astronauts around the moon by 2021 and expand the flight envelope of its new generation of space vehicles.

The Orion capsule has endured numerous kinds of testing in recent years, but it hit a bit of a speed bump recently when small cracks were found in the capsule slated for flight in 2017. The three hairline cracks, each less then two inches long, are located on the bottom of the vehicle. This capsule is expected to be used for a test flight to earth orbit atop a Delta IV rocket in 2014, three years before the SLS will launch an Orion into lunar orbit.

Photo: NASA The Orion capsule being prepared for pressure testing. Photo: NASA

The cracks did not penetrate the aluminum skin of the Orion spacecraft. NASA says a simple fix will distribute the stress across the location where the cracks occurred according to the Denver Post.

"For this flight, since its unmanned, we can fix it and fly it" Orion program manager Mark Geyer told the newspaper. "When we build the one we're actually going to put people on, we'll make sure to fix this design."

With NASA handing off the job of delivering astronauts and cargo to low earth orbit over to commercial companies like SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, the manned space program at the agency is focusing on exploration a bit deeper into space. Orion will be able to carry a four person crew on mission lasting up to 210 days. In addition to possible missions to an asteroid, Orion is also being designed for trips to the moon and Mars. For all trips the capsule would just be part of the space vehicle needed as was the case with the Apollo capsules which used a command module and lunar module for the missions.