If you feel the need for some speed, perhaps you should fire this up. NASA posted a promo video for its biggest, baddest rocket with the header under the YouTube video that says: “Feel the Power of America’s Next Great Rocket.”
It all feels very Mission: Impossible. Sexy, indeed.
According to NASA, the “Space Launch System (SLS) will be the world’s most powerful rocket ever built for deep space missions, including to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars.”
As we know, the race to build heavy, cargo-carrying rockets is well underway. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is getting ready to launch later this year with the tagline “the world’s most powerful rocket.” But one look at NASA’s SLS and it might a short-lived title.
The SLS project will offer the “highest-ever payload mass and volume capacity and energy to speed missions through space, SLS will be the most powerful rocket in history and is designed to be flexible and evolvable to meet a variety of crew and cargo needs,” according to NASA’s site. The first mission is scheduled to take off in September 2018.
There will be several versions of the SLS rocket, starting with a 70-metric-ton (77 tons) lift capability to one that is 130 metric tons (143 tons), according to NASA’s fact sheet on the project. The 70-metric-ton one will have 10 percent more thrust than the Saturn V rocket and carry three times more than the space shuttle. It will be 322 feet tall, weigh 5.5 million pounds and have 8.4 million pounds of thrust at liftoff — the “equivalent of 13,400 locomotive engines” and be able to carry 154,000 pounds, or about “12 fully grown elephants.”
Whew. If that isn’t enough to get your heart racing, take a look at the video below.
