NASA successfully completed the Space Launch System (SLS) preliminary design review (PDR) Wednesday, a major milestone in its effort to build the United States’ next heavy-lift launch vehicle.
Senior experts and engineers from across the agency concluded the design, associated production and group support plans for SLS are technically and programmatically capable of fulfilling the launch vehicle’s mission objectives, according to a NASA statement. NASA is developing the SLS and Orion spacecraft to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO), with the flexibility to launch spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, including to an asteroid and Mars.
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| Engineers at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility transfer a 22-foot-tall barrel section of the SLS core stage from the Vertical Weld Center. Photo: NASA. |
“The review had to be incredibly detailed, so our plans for vehicle integration, flight software, test, verification and operations will result in a safe, affordable and sustainable vehicle design,” Todd May, manager of the SLS program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said in a statement.
This review concludes the initial design and technology development phase. The next milestone in the continuing verification process is Key Decision Point-C, in which NASA will grant the program authority to move from formulation to implementation.
NASA’s industry partners–Boeing [BA], ATK [ATK] and GenCorp’s [GY] Aerojet Rocketdyne division–contributed to this successful checkpoint and will continue to work to meet all program milestones. Experts from 11 different review teams participated in the design review process.
The SLS program in July 2012 completed a combined system requirements review and system definition review, which set requirements of the overall launch vehicle system. That successful completion confirmed the SLS was ready to move from concept to design.
The initial 70 metric ton version of SLS will stand 321 feet tall, provide 8.4 million pounds of thrust at liftoff and carry 154,000 pounds of payload. The rocket is scheduled for its first mission, Exploration Mission 1, in 2017, at which time it will launch an uncrewed Orion spacecraft. The mission’s goal is to demonstrate the integrated system performance of the SLS rocket and spacecraft before a crewed flight in 2021.