[BenLurkin]

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden officially unveils world’s largest welder [?] to start construction of core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at NASA Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, on Sept. 12, 2014. SLS will be the world’s most powerful rocket ever built.
Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com

[rktman]

“... SLS will be the world’s most powerful rocket ever built ‘by muslim rocket engineers’.” Charlie musta forgot to add that part.

I worked at Michoud on the Space Shuttle External Tank from ‘75-’87 before transferring to KSC to work on launches. When I first hired on we didn’t even have any tooling to build the tanks so we had to build it all. Looks like they used some of the tech we developed to build this super welder. Will the U.S. really ever get back to human space flight?

[Corey Ohlis]

The SLS’s RS-25 rocket engine only has one third the thrust of the Saturn V’s old F-1.