NASA Space Launch System Needs a Giant Welding Toolkit
NASA announced that it is ready to use its new Vertical Assembly Center to start the construction of the core state of the agency’s Space Launch System or SLS. This is NASA’s next generation heavy lift rocket. The Vertical Assembly Center is said to be a giant welding tool that is 78 feet wide and 170 feet tall. The giant welding tool is found in NASA’s facility in New Orleans. Its operations began last September 12.
The Vertical Assembly Center has been used to combine the barrels of the core stage. NASA used the Segmented Ring Tool to weld the rings for the SLS’ initial flight that has been scheduled for December. The core has five major structures, which are liquid oxygen tank, forward skirt, inter tank, engine section, and liquid hydrogen tank. They are consisting of barrels and domes that are linked and reinforced by rings. The Vertical Assembly Center will assess the welds of the core before the scheduled flight.
The progress of the SLS Program is good as both the boosters and core stage completed their critical design review. NASA has approved the progression of the SLS Program from formulation to development. Todd May, SLS program manager, said that the program reached a major milestone with the first new design for SLS that has been approved for production.
The completed core stage of the SLS will be more than 200 feet tall and 27 feet wide. The core stage will have cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen as fuel for the RS-25 engines. The SLS is the most powerful rocket designed by NASA for deep space missions. Some of its future missions include going to Mars and an asteroid. It is set to carry the Orion crew module. The Orion capsule has took an initial test flight last December.
