NASA’s Space Launch System Booster Passes Major Ground Test [With Video], NASA “The largest, most powerful rocket booster ever built successfully fired up Wednesday for a major-milestone ground test in preparation for future missions to help propel NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft to deep space destinations, including an asteroid and Mars.”

NASA and Boeing Sign Space Launch System Contract, Boeing “Boeing has finalized a contract with NASA to develop the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket ever built and destined to propel America’s return to human exploration of deep space. The $2.8 billion contract validates Boeing’s earlier selection as the prime contractor on the SLS core stage, including the avionics, under an undefinitized contract authorization. […]

Revisiting SLS/Orion launch costs, John Strickland for The Space Review “A year and a half ago, I wrote an article very critical of the Space Launch System. To see if this assessment should now be updated, I checked a series of sources and found that little in the situation has changed, with no reliable cost estimates of an SLS launch yet available anywhere. It is actually amazing how hard it […]

NASA Set for New Round Of J-2X Testing at Stennis Space Center, NASA “NASA’s progress toward a return to deep space missions continues with a new round of upcoming tests on the next-generation J-2X rocket engine, which will help power the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) to new destinations in the solar system. Beginning this month, engineers will conduct a series of tests on the second J-2X development engine, designated […]

Senator Shelby Letter Expressing Concern to NASA About Shuttle Derived Booster Space Launch System, Senator Shelby “I am concerned, therefore, that NASA is considering a Space Launch System architecture that relies on a booster system developed for the Space Shuttle. I am particularly concerned that this plan might be implemented without a meaningful competitive process. Designing a Space Launch System for heavy lift that relies on existing Shuttle boosters ties […]

NASA’s New Upper Stage Rocket Engine Ready For Testing, NASA “An upper stage engine is essential to making space exploration outside low-Earth orbit a reality,” said Mike Kynard, manager of the J-2X upper stage engine project at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. “The J-2X goes beyond the limits of its historic predecessor and achieves higher thrust, performance, and reliability than the J2. We are thrilled to have […]