Space Launch System is NASA’s largest rocket to date and its first test flight in 2017 is still on the cards. Astronauts will be carried into space farther than previous missions. This is NASA’s plan for space travel; no longer will they be involved in low-Earth orbit travel. That will be left to commercial space companies.

The idea behind the Space Launch System was started 10 years ago according to David Leestma, a former astronaut and current head of the Technology Transfer and Commercialisation Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Not only is the Space System Launch NASA’s largest rocket but it will also be the most powerful rocket. Leestma said:

We want to take NASA well beyond the space station. The SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built, and it will be safe, affordable and sustainable.

Most of the components of the from the old shuttle programme will be used but the central structure will change. There are some 14 flyable engines from the shuttle programme which can be used with the help of a few modifications, said Jim Paulsen from rocket engine maker Pratt & Whitney/Rocketdyne. Alliant Techsystems are preparing the solid rocket boosters, claiming the preparations are on schedule and on budget.  NASA’s Orion capsule will sit on top of these boosters.

The rocket will be capable of a conducting an asteroid mission, among other things.

[Source: Mashable]