NEW ORLEANS — NASA rolled out the core stage of the Space Launch System 'mega-rocket' from a New Orleans factory on Wednesday.<br /><br />BBC reports that the core stage was loaded onto the Pegasus barge to sail down the Mississippi River for testing at the Stennis Space Center.<br /><br />According to NASA, the SLS rocket is the backbone of U.S. plans to land on the moon again by 2024 and to explore Mars. It has a top speed of Mach 23.<br /><br />NASA states that the rocket's core stage is 212 feet tall and 27.6 feet wide, making it the largest booster ever built.<br /><br />The core stage features a forward skirt for housing avionics, a liquid oxygen fuel tank, an intertank that joins the boosters' tanks, a liquid hydrogen fuel tank and quadruple RS-24 engines.<br /><br />The four engines create more than 2 million pounds of combined thrust.<br /><br />The BBC reports that the SLS will deliver the Orion spacecraft—which is undergoing testing—to Luna for the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission planned for the next year.<br /><br />According to European Space Agency, the Orion spacecraft will feature foldable solar panels and it will orbit the moon for the Artemis 1 mission.
