NASA has started building its new Space Launch System, or SLS, megarocket, a year ahead of its scheduled maiden voyage.
Teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida began assembling the rocket days ago. The megarocket, which has a price tag of more than $9 billion, is set to make its first voyage in November 2021, and it is expected to be the next vessel to get U.S. astronauts back to the moon this decade. That journey is tentatively set for 2024. Those voyages, known as Artemis, will bring the first woman to the moon.
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“Stacking the first piece of the SLS rocket on the mobile launcher marks a major milestone for the Artemis [program],” said Andrew Shroble, a manager with Jacobs Engineering Group, which is working on the rocket, according to the BBC. “It shows the mission is truly taking shape and will soon head to the launch pad.”
Engineers at NASA lowered the first of ten booster segments into the mobile launcher last weekend. They will be stacked there until it’s moved to a launch pad ahead of takeoff.
The megarocket is supposed to have approximately 15% more maximum thrust capacity at liftoff compared to the rockets used to launch the Apollo missions to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s.
Earlier this month, NASA partnered with SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk, to launch a crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station.
