The Space Launch System, or SLS for short, is NASA's go-to rocket to carry NASA's planned Orion capsule and possibly other future payloads beyond low-Earth orbit.
MSN: Giant deep-space rocket passes key test - Technology & science - Space - Space.com | NBC News
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama (CNN) -- The best time in the life of a rocket scientist is the time spent standing by a launch pad or a test stand, watching a brand-new rocket go through performance tests.
And the rocket that would go to Mars is still at least a technological generation away.
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The vehicle was dropped from a carrier aircraft high above California's Mojave Desert and ignited its rocket engine to go supersonic for a few seconds.
The intention was to give the US a crew-carrier and rocket technology that could go beyond low-Earth orbit to more distant targets, back to the Moon and further.
Organized with all the precision of a NASA space launch, Systems Go Rockets 2013 attracted groups of young rocket scientists assembled to show off their knowledge of physics and engineering.
Its disruptive technology is a novel air-breathing and rocket engine that would enable the ship to go to space in one leap.
Why would they continue refining the specifications, go to all that trouble for something that, if it was a rocket, would soon be blown into shrapnel when it went off?
Moviegoers are in for one final go-around of space-going swashbucklers slashing at each other with laser swords as they rocket from star to star.
Why go to all that trouble, asked Mr Powell, if the tubes were just to be blown up in a rocket?
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