Boeing Rolls Out Largest Rocket Since Apollo

Last week Boeing delivered the core stage of NASA’s first Space Launch System (SLS) deep space exploration rocket, moving it out of the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the Stennis Space Center for testing.
The SLS is the largest rocket to fly since the Moon landings, even outclassing the Saturn V.
Boeing describes SLS as the world’s most powerful rocket, built to carry astronauts and cargo farther and faster than any rocket in history.

Last week Boeing delivered the core stage of NASA’s first Space Launch System (SLS) deep space exploration rocket, moving it out of the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the Stennis Space Center for testing.

The first glimpse of the rocket rolling out of the space agency’s assembly facility saw the Boeing-built SLS Core Stage being transported on the specially designed Pegasus barge to make its voyage downriver to the Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. There it will undergo hot-fire tests, live engine tests, inspection and refurbishment before being delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for stacking with the Interim Cryogenic Upper Stage (ICPS) and NASA’s Orion spacecraft. A number of the SLS are being built at different locations with the first stage of the rocket being assembled at the same facility as the first stage of the legendary Saturn V.

The SLS is the largest rocket to fly since the Moon landings, even outclassing the Saturn V. Boeing describes SLS as the world’s most powerful rocket, built to carry astronauts and cargo farther and faster than any rocket in history.

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John Shannon, Boeing SLS vice president and program manager said:

“The Boeing SLS team has worked shoulder-to-shoulder with NASA and our supplier partners to face multiple challenges with ingenuity and perseverance, while keeping safety and quality at the forefront,”

“We are applying what we’ve learned from the development of the first core stage to accelerate work on core stages 2 and 3, already in production at Michoud, as well as the Exploration Upper Stage that will power NASA’s most ambitious Artemis missions,” said Shannon.

Boeing said that the SLS’s unmatched capabilities will deliver human-rated spacecraft, habitats and science missions to the moon, Mars and beyond as part of NASA’s Artemis program.