Here are five reasons SLS is premier best rocket to send Americans back to the Moon:

1. SLS is the only rocket qualified to send astronauts to the Moon.

SLS is currently the only human-rated rocket, meaning it meets NASA’s highest requirements for crew safety and reliability. This makes the super heavy-lift rocket the only one capable of sending spacecraft, astronauts, and large cargo directly to the surface of the Moon in a single launch.

2. SLS is the world’s most capable rocket.

SLS is the most capable rocket ever built. It is designed to take humans farther and faster into space in a single launch. Its design, which will advance in line with new, innovative aerospace technologies, offers the greatest performance to propel human, cargo and science missions to deep space destinations. The initial rockets, with the horsepower of about 160,000 Corvette engines, will deliver 27 metric tons of payload to the Moon. The final rocket configuration will deliver more than 38 metric tons to the Moon.

3. SLS is flexible for different types of missions.

SLS can be configured to transport people, cargo, and science experiments into space. The rocket can evolve based on the needs of the mission while remaining safe, affordable, and sustainable.

4. SLS is American-made.

SLS is made right here in America. It is designed in Alabama, built in Louisiana, tested in Mississippi, and launched in Florida. SLS has suppliers from almost every state providing hardware and advanced technologies. Thousands will look to the sky each time the SLS launches, knowing they played a key role in building American space dominance.

5. SLS is part of a long-term space program.

American manufacturers helped America win the 20th century space race. With the Artemis program, they’ve been building spacecraft for more than 60 years with NASA.

SLS was built using decades of aerospace knowledge and expertise needed to ensure that NASA astronauts return safely to the Moon and help America win the modern-day space race.

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Launching a car into orbit was fun, but picture a rocket that can take 22 elephants into space. That’s how powerful this rocket is.

The rocket is scheduled to officially launch in 2019, igniting a new era of human space exploration.

Learn more about the world’s most powerful rocket and how it will take Americans to Mars.

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The 212-foot-tall stage is the backbone of the most powerful rocket in the world, comprised of a liquid hydrogen tank and liquid oxygen tank, which hold 733,000 gallons (2,650 cubic meters) of propellant, in addition to the forward skirt, intertank, and engine section. Follow-on work includes quality testing, application of thermal protection spray, and integration. Thousands of miles of cable, wiring and tubing will connect through those elements to power the launch and guide the rocket. More than four million pieces make up the rocket core stage; about 15,000 discrete types of parts and pieces.

The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage is at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, awaiting integration with the rest of the core stage. The flight engines, which will be powered by the core stage propellants, are at Stennis Space Center, scheduled for a major test firing today, Oct. 19.

The team also is starting to build the next core stage and develop the Exploration Upper Stage for EM-2.

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The test was conducted by Orbital ATK, which makes the 154-foot-long boosters for NASA near Promontory, Utah and featured the booster positioned horizontally to engage 3.6 million pounds of rocket thrust, spewing smoke and flames.

Each SLS rocket will have two boosters along with four main engines to produce 9 million pounds of thrust for liftoff. The rocket will need to carry an immense amount of cargo – and humans – farther and faster than ever before to achieve NASA’s goal of Mars habitation.

During the Space Launch System flight the boosters will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth, the first step on NASA’s Journey to Mars.

The booster was tested at a cold motor conditioning target of 40 degrees Fahrenheit –the colder end of its accepted propellant temperature range. When ignited, temperatures inside the booster reached nearly 6,000 degrees.

At the same time, Boeing is building the fuel tanks that will power the boosters and engines for SLS’ launch.

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Boeing is tasked with the design, development, production, test and integration of the core stages, as well as the avionics. In New Orleans, Boeing is building the giant fuel tank stack that will feed cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the rocket’s engines at launch. At the streamlined factory, using fewer tools and workers than ever before, workers affordably manufacture the massive core stages for the world’s largest, most powerful launch vehicle.

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“Boeing is building big rockets again,” said Boeing SLS production leader Jackie Nesselroad. “It’s an exciting time to be part of the NASA team.” The Space Launch System will be the largest rocket ever built, capable of carrying crew and cargo into deep space.

The tank is a confidence article, which verifies weld quality, and it now moves on for thermal protection foam application, which will protect the tank in temperature extremes during launch. It’s this foam that gives the rocket its orange color.

Towering more than 200 feet tall with a diameter of 27.6 feet, the Space Launch System core stage is designed and built by Boeing. It will store cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that will feed the vehicle’s RS-25 engines on the rocket’s first flight in 2018- Exploration Mission 1 (EM 1). EM 1 will test integrated rocket and crew capsule systems before a follow-on crewed flight, Exploration Mission 2.

All welding for the SLS core stage for the Block I configuration of the rocket – including confidence, qualification and flight hardware – will be completed this summer.

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