Have you ever wondered what it takes to assemble the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built? Watch documentary footage of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket's transformation into the over-300-foot-tall launch vehicle that will return humanity to the Moon. Starting with manufacturing and en
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket will launch with Orion atop it from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s modernized spaceport at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASAhas ever built? Watch documentary footage of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket’s transformation into the over-300-foot-tall launch vehicle that will return humanity to the Moon.
Then, they’re ready to go into the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, where the rest of the motor segments are assembled and stacked on top of the mobile launcher. Once we have everything done in High Bay 4, we pick up the segment with a 325 foot crane, pick it up over the 16th-floor crossover to where you see it now, and we begin stacking the segments. Each segment we lift over the 16th-floor crossover and stack it. Once we stack it, we put it on top of the segment below, and we put about 177 pins all the way around the whole thing to attach each segment.There’s a tremendous responsibility involved with processing flight hardware like this.
Standing an impressive 212 feet tall, and weighing a whopping 188,000 pounds, the core stage came all the way from Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The core stage went through round after round of rigorous testing, including what’s called its Green Run series, truly putting its performance to the test.
There was a lot of joy and workmanship and ownership of being able to work that process and be able to get it done. When we went for the second hot fire, and we went for the 500 seconds, that was just pure exhilaration. NASA’s largest rocket stage, now fully integrated with the twin boosters, is ready to get Orion off the Earth. But, it will take one more critical component to give the capsule that extra push it needs to journey tens of thousands of miles beyond the Moon.
But, before the spacecraft can be attached to the rocket, teams will conduct a series of tests to ensure all of SLS’s components communicate properly with one another, plus the ground systems equipment, the Launch Control System, and its software. When SLS blasts off from Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B, Orion isn’t the only thing it will be sending to space. Hitching a ride with Orion are tiny, shoe-box sized satellites – called CubeSats – that were loaded into the Orion stage adapter in Kennedy’s Space Station Processing Facility.
The launch abort system is kind of that pointy solid rocket motor that’s at the top of Orion, and it’s there to protect the crew in the event of an emergency so it’s a very important system. Fully integrated with its launch abort system, the Orion spacecraft slowly makes its way to the VAB in the overnight hours.
Before SLS and Orion can launch our nation into a new era of space exploration, a series of tests need to take place inside the VAB, validating the rocket and spacecraft as an integrated system and paving the way for one, final milestone: wet dress rehearsal.
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