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SLS: First view of Nasa's assembled 'megarocket' - BBC News

SLS: First view of Nasa's assembled 'megarocket' - BBC News

SLS: First view of Nasa's assembled 'megarocket' - BBC News
Jun 12, 2021 1 min, 13 secs

Nasa has assembled the first of its powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rockets, which will carry humans to the Moon this decade.

On Friday, engineers at Florida's Kennedy Space Center finished lowering the 65m (212ft) -tall core stage in-between two smaller booster rockets.

The SLS consists of the giant core stage, which houses propellant tanks and four powerful engines, flanked by two 54m (177ft) -long solid rocket boosters (SRBs).

Both the core stage and the SRBs are taller than the Statue of Liberty, minus its pedestal.

Over Friday and Saturday, teams at Kennedy Space Center used a heavy-lift crane to first hoist the core stage, transfer it from a horizontal to a vertical position, and then lower it into place between the SRBs on a structure called the mobile launcher.

It will also transfer the giant rocket to the launch pad.

While this was going on, the core stage was attached to a test stand in Mississippi, undergoing a comprehensive programme of evaluation known as the Green Run.

In March, the core stage engines were fired successfully for around eight minutes - the time taken for the SLS to get from the ground to space - in the Green Run's final and most important test.

After refurbishment, the core was taken by barge to Kennedy Space Center.

Artemis-3, which will be the first mission to land humans on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, should launch in the next few years.

Summarized by 365NEWSX ROBOTS

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