It’s a remarkable process to watch – two panels are clamped together and a computer-controlled rotating spindle moves along the join. It takes only a few minutes for even the longest welds, which are stronger and more reliable than anything produced using conventional welding techniques.

The most impressive part of the New Orleans factory is undoubtedly the final assembly hall, where the entire central core of the rocket will be put together. This seventeen story high building is filled with a single robotic welding machine, the largest friction stir welding structure ever built.

“This is not the same as something else made larger,” says Whipps. “This is a brand new tool, the likes of which no-one has made before, but the rocket we’re sending is the biggest rocket sent off the face of the Earth and that’s also something we’ve never done before.”

Into the unknown



The first SLS launcher is due for launch in 2018, which means the engineers at Michoud and Marshall have a little over two years to build the first core, test the engines and boosters and ship it round the coast in a barge for final assembly at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Not surprisingly, the first mission – to a point further than an astronaut-rated spacecraft has ever gone – will not have a crew on board.

“We’re going to go about 30,000 miles further than the Apollo missions went,” says Stanley. “We have to balance safety with performance – we want to make sure we’re taking the appropriate risk.”

It is a view shared by Whipps, who has pictures on his office wall of the doomed crews of the Challenger and Columbia Shuttle missions. He says everyone at Michoud is conscious that they are building a rocket that will ultimately carry astronauts.