The Final Post of the Year...

Just thought I'd end 2013 by sharing this cool illustration of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) soaring away from its pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Hopefully, this will become a reality in 2017...with NASA trying to make this the case when the agency plans to accomplish these trio of milestones in 2014: The RS-25 engine (three of which were used on the space shuttle, and five of these will now help send the SLS on its way out of Earth's atmosphere) will be placed on Stennis Space Center's A-1 stand for testing, the Orion capsule will finally see flight next September on Exploration Flight Test-1, and manufacturing on the SLS' core stage will begin after the Vertical Assembly Center at the Michoud facility (where the core stage for all SLS vehicles will be built) near New Orleans, Louisiana finishes construction. Exciting times lay ahead for America's manned spaceflight program next year.


NASA