NASA's Flagship Rocket Faces Yet Another Delay

NASA is tentatively delaying the maiden voyage of its much ballyhooed Space Launch System (SLS) for the second time this year, saying it will not be ready for takeoff until perhaps 2020. The SLS has been in development since 2011. A heavy-lift rocket in combination with a crew capsule called the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the SLS lacks for nothing in ambition. NASA plans to the SLS to be 385 feet tall with it a liftoff weight of 6.5 million pounds. Its four RS-25 engines would provide enough power to keep eight 747s aloft, and at liftoff it would produce a thrust equivalent to 160,000 Corvette engines—15 percent stronger than the famed Saturn V that took Neil Armstrong to the Moon. More

(Source: Popular Mechanics - Nov 23)