(Images courtesy of NASA TV)
There have been a lot of crossed fingers ahead of the latest attempt to launch the Artemis One moon rocket, the heart of which is built by Boeing.
The Space Launch System – or SLS – is made up of multiple components, but it’s the core stage built mainly by Boeing that plays a big part in getting it off the ground…a giant machine, says former Boeing CEO, Dennis Muillenburg in a 2019 speech at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, standing at more than 38 stories tall, “9.2 million pounds of thrust. That’s about the equivalent of 208,000 Corvette engines. If you compare this to the Saturn V rocket that took our astronauts to the moon, it’s about 20-30% larger. This is a rocket that return us to the Moon, this time permanently.” The core stage is powered at its base by four RS-25 engines, built by Redmond’s Aerojet Rocketdyne. The RS-25 is the same bell-shaped engine that could be found at the rear of the Space Shuttles, known as the Shuttle Main Engines.
Muilenberg also predicted it would be an SLS rocket that would carry the first humans to Mars. Before we can set up a permanent lunar base, however, this uncrewed flight will test the rocket’s capability lift an Orion space capsule and payload into space, then fire itself to the moon and, after more than three weeks, return the craft safely to the Earth.
You can watch the NASA TV live feed below:
