New Heavy Rocket Space Launch System for NASA Begins Design Review

NASA has recently issued a statement announcing that the agency is beginning a preliminary design review for its Space Launch System (SLS). With the Space Shuttle fleet now in retirement, this is the next step allowing for the development of the space agency’s new heavy-lift rocket.

The SLS and its new Orion spacecraft are the next-generation of space vehicles allowing for flexibility in launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions. The new system is aimed at expanding human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enabling new missions of exploration in the solar system.

“This phase of development allows us to take a critical look at every design element to ensure it’s capable of carrying humans to places we’ve never been before,” said Dan Dumbacher, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development in Washington. “This is the rocket that will send humans to an asteroid and Mars, so we want to be sure we get its development right.”

NASA has set a target date for the test launch of an unmanned SLS heavy lift rocket for 2017. To meet this aggressive launch schedule, the upcoming preliminary design review process is a necessary step to ensure that NASA and its contractor partners and experts from across the aerospace industry can validate elements of the rocket and ensure they can be safely and successfully integrated. The process should be complete by the end of this summer.

“The preliminary design review is incredibly important, as it demonstrates the SLS design meets all system requirements within acceptable risk constraints, giving us the green light for proceeding with the detailed design,” said Todd May, manager of the SLS Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. “We are on track and meeting all the milestones necessary to fly in 2017.”

Following successful unmanned test flights, the SLS rocket will be used for a manned space launch mission allowing astronauts to study an asteroid by 2021. The review process will take several weeks and is expected to conclude this summer.