The Space Launch System rocket that will transport an unmanned Orion spacecraft to the moon during the Artemis 1 mission is the most powerful rocket ever constructed by NASA. When fully loaded for takeoff, it weighs 5.75 million pounds, but can ascend nearly 500 feet in just seven seconds.
A depiction of the intended launch of the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket in NASA’s history. NASA
Before the highly anticipated first launch, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told CBS News, “I’m afraid people will think it’s commonplace.” “But when the candles are extinguished, the scene is anything but usual. It is a high-wire act from start to finish… This is a major issue. And it is gorgeous. It is indeed a monster! The magnitude simply overwhelms you.”
Monday’s launch from pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center is scheduled for 8:33 a.m. EDT, the beginning of a two-hour launch window.
Here are some astounding facts and data about NASA’s mighty rocket:
Fuel load & shrinkage
When loaded with 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen at -423 degrees Fahrenheit, the enormous fuel tank of the SLS core stage will contract by approximately 6 inches in length and 1 inch in diameter. The liquid oxygen tank of the rocket will shrink by half an inch in length and approximately 1.3 inches in diameter.
Due to this contraction, everything that connects to the tanks — ducts and vent lines, brackets, etc. — must be attached using flexible accordion-like bellows.
Retro processor
The core stage flight computer, which controls all aspects of the rocket’s ascent into space, employs the same Power PC chip as an obsolete G3 Macintosh Powerbook. However, the specialized operating system is significantly more effective.
Jumbo jets
The 2 million pounds of thrust generated by the four RS-25 engines on the core stage could propel eight Boeing 747s. Each of the two solid-fuel rockets’ 3,6 million pounds of thrust could propel 14 four-engine jumbo planes.
Increasing output
If converted to electricity, the energy output of the RS-25 engines could power almost 850,000 miles of lamps along a road spanning to the moon and back and then 15 times around the Earth.
The four engines generate twice the power required to propel 10 aircraft carriers of the Nimitz class at 30 knots.
Guzzling propellant
All four core stage engines require 1,500 gallons of propellant per second, enough to empty a 20,000-gallon pool in 13 seconds.
The two solid-fuel boosters of the SLS rocket burn 5.5 tons of propellant per second. If the heat produced by the boosters during their two-minute operation were converted to energy, it would be sufficient to power 92,000 houses for a full day.
intense heat
During test firings at the Northrop Grumman facility in Utah, the rocket booster exhaust is sufficiently enough to fuse sand to glass.
Bolt blasting
Eight huge bolts secure the 5.75-million-pound SLS rocket to its launch pad, four at the base of each solid rocket booster. At the time of booster ignition, explosive charges fracture the bolts, allowing the SLS to launch.
Acceleration
In the first two minutes of flight, the twin solid rocket boosters provide for 75% of the SLS rocket’s total force, propelling the vehicle to over 4,000 miles per hour and a height of 27 miles.
When the main engines of the rocket shut down eight minutes after launch, the rocket will be traveling at around 18,000 mph. That is fast enough to traverse 88 football fields in a single second. The upper stage of the rocket will increase the velocity to 22,600 miles per hour, or 110 football fields per second, to break out of Earth orbit and propel the Orion spacecraft to the moon.
Space & Astrophysics
William Harwood
Since 1984, Bill Harwood has covered the U.S. space program full-time, first as United Press International’s Cape Canaveral bureau chief and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary trip since Voyager 2’s encounter of Neptune, as well as a multitude of commercial and military launches. Harwood is a committed amateur astronomer based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and co-author of “Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia.”