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The contract spans from November 2015 through Sept. 30, 2024. The SLS is the most powerful rocket the world has ever seen and will loft astronauts in the Orion capsule on missions back to the Moon by around 2021, to an asteroid around 2025 and then beyond on a 'Journey to Mars' in the 2030s - NASA's overriding and agency wide goal. The first unmanned SLS test flight is slated for late 2018. The core stage (first stage) of the SLS will initially be powered by four existing RS-25 engines, recycled and upgraded from the shuttle era, and a pair...

Recently I spent some time surrounded by people who are smarter than I am, who are braver and more committed to human progress, who know more about science and technology, more about business and industry, and more about budgets and expenditures. This is an experience Congress and the White House should have. Except Congress and the White House have this experience every day. And me too, but at least I know when itÂ’s happening.It was happening with unusual intensity last month in Colorado Springs at the 29th National Space Symposium. This is the biggest and most important annual worldwide gathering...

A vintage rocket engine built to blast the first U.S. lunar mission into Earth's orbit more than 40 years ago is again rumbling across the Southern landscape. The engine, known to NASA engineers as No. F-6049, was supposed to help propel Apollo 11 into orbit in 1969, when NASA sent Neil Armstrong and two other astronauts to the moon for the first time.

STENNIS SPACE CENTER — A massive steel structure jutting into the sky not far from Interstate 10 is sending the world a message: NASA is taking the next step in hurtling humans back to the moon. Structural work was recently finished on the giant A-3 test stand. Now, things are moving further along in the construction phase. In April, Steel Erector Inc., of Lafayette, La., put the final steel beam on top of the towering test stand and bolted the beam in place, bearing the signatures of project team members. “We’re now 235 feet closer to going back to...

A high-level panel of experts has praised the idea of sending NASA astronauts to visit a nearby asteroid and recommends ambitious robotic missions that will be made possible by next-generation rockets. But the panel also warns that these missions could carry big price tags... When the Ares V rocket makes its first planned flight in 2020, it will be able to lift larger and heavier payloads than any existing vehicle. It will be able to launch objects stretching more than 8 metres across and haul dozens of tonnes of cargo into space on a single flight. For example, it can...

SEATTLE, Feb. 22, 2005 -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] today said development of the 747 Large Cargo Freighter is proceeding according to plan and the modified freighters will be ready to support final assembly of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliners in 2007. "We have a top-notch team of engineers working to design what will be one of the most unique airplanes flying," said 787 Vice President of Manufacturing and Quality Scott Strode. "This kind of modification is an engineer's dream. It's an extremely challenging project, and it's essential to the success of the Dreamliner." Boeing announced last week the critical "swing...

Saturn 5 Blueprints Safely in Storage A NASA official has denied a claim made by a book author that blueprints for the mighty Saturn 5 rocket used to push Apollo astronauts to the moon were lost. The denial came in response to a recent story in SPACE.com that reported on a claim John Lewis made in his 1996 book, Mining the Sky, that he went looking for the Saturn 5 blueprints a few years ago and concluded, incredibly, they had been "lost." Paul Shawcross, from NASA's Office of Inspector General, came to the agency's defense in comments published on CCNet...

The exploration team used Remotely Operated Vehicles to find the engines, which sat on the ocean floor, more than 14,000 feet below sea level. Bezos described the experience as "otherworldly," noting the engines' burial site was eerily similar to space: a feeling of microgravity and a seemingly endless black horizon. After decades of exposure to the ocean's harsh conditions, the engines are corroded, and many are missing the original serial numbers. This will make the identification process more difficult. Bezos will work with NASA to restore two of the F-1 engines' hardware and prevent further corrosion. They will eventually go...

State and federal officials announced Friday a potentially historic agreement to remove all radioactive contamination from a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959 at a rocket testing site just outside Los Angeles. Residents who have fought for years for the cleanup heralded the agreement signed by the Department of Energy, NASA and state officials. The agreement must still go through a public review process. The decades-old site is known as the Santa Susana Field Laboratory and is now largely owned by Boeing Co. Boeing said in a statement that it had only just learned of the agreement and was reviewing it....

In a flight test reminiscent of the early days of the historic X-15 program 50 years earlier, the X-51A Waverider was carried aloft for the first time over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 9 by an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52H Stratofortress. The "captive carry" test was a key milestone in preparation for the X-51 to light its supersonic combustion ramjet engine and propel the WaverRider at hypersonic speed for about 5 minutes, before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. That flight test is currently planned in about two months, said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager with the...

The US Air Force Research Laboratory's X-51A WaveRider scramjet engine demonstrator completed its first captive-carry flight under the wing of its B-52H mothership from Edwards AFB on Dec. 9. The first free flight is planned for mid-February. The B-52 climbed to the planned launch altitude of 50,000ft during a 1.4h flight that checked out systems and telemetry. The next flight, planned for mid-January, will be a full dress-rehearsal for the first of four planned X-51A hypersonic test flights. The Boeing-built X-51A will be released at 50,000ft over the Pacific and accelerated to Mach 4.5 by a solid rocket booster. The...

Sustained hypersonic flight above speeds of Mach 5 by vehicles using air-breathing, jet-fuel-powered engines could become achievable within the next dozen years. Successful recent ground tests of jet-fueled, ramjet/scramjet demonstrator engines by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Aerojet represent important progress toward flight-testing of three separate hypersonic-vehicle programs. In September, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) completed 10 months' testing of a sub-scale combustor for a hydrocarbon-powered, dual-mode ramjet engine designed to operate over a wide range of Mach-number speeds -- that is, multiples of the speed of sound. Using JP-7 jet fuel, PWR ran the combustor successfully at a variety...

Air-quality regulators planned to sample the air around the Santa Susana Field Lab late Thursday for contamination that may have been released when the Topanga Fire roared through the hilltop lab. Thursday was supposed to be the day of the final rocket test at the field lab, ending testing operations at the hilltop site. Instead, it was at the center of a massive brush fire that stretched miles through the rugged area. Several vacant buildings at the site were burned, and an office and machine shop were damaged by the flames. But hazardous waste and radioactive facilities were not affected,...

Boeing Co. on Tuesday agreed to sell off a key part of its commercial jet-building operations and a rocket engine unit in two separate deals worth about $2 billion. The deals come as Boeing tries to sell off manufacturing capacity and cut costs amid fierce competition from European rival Airbus, the world's top aircraft maker, in the commercial airline market. Boeing sold its commercial plane manufacturing operations in Kansas and Oklahoma to Canadian leveraged buyout firm Onex Corp. for $1.2 billion including $900 million in cash and the transfer of certain liabilities, such as employee pension costs. The sale to...