[meteorite-list] NASA's Space Launch System Program Kicks Off Preliminary Design Review

[Ron Baalke]

June 19, 2013

Rachel Kraft 
Headquarters, Washington                         
202-358-1100 
rachel.h.kraft at nasa.gov 

Kimberly Henry 
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 
256-544-0034 
kimberly.m.henry at nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 13-189

NASA'S SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM PROGRAM KICKS OFF PRELIMINARY DESIGN REVIEW

WASHINGTON -- NASA is beginning a preliminary design review for its 
Space Launch System (SLS). This major program assessment will allow 
development of the agency's new heavy-lift rocket to move from 
concept to initial design. 

The preliminary design review process includes meticulous, detailed 
analyses of the entire launch vehicle. Representatives from NASA, its 
contractor partners and experts from across the aerospace industry 
validate elements of the rocket to ensure they can be safely and 
successfully integrated. 

"This phase of development allows us to take a critical look at every 
design element to ensure it's capable of carrying humans to places 
we've never been before," said Dan Dumbacher, NASA's deputy associate 
administrator for exploration systems development in Washington. 
"This is the rocket that will send humans to an asteroid and Mars, so 
we want to be sure we get its development right." 

The review process will take several weeks and is expected to conclude 
this summer. 

"The preliminary design review is incredibly important, as it 
demonstrates the SLS design meets all system requirements within 
acceptable risk constraints, giving us the green light for proceeding 
with the detailed design," said Todd May, manager of the SLS Program 
at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "We are on 
track and meeting all the milestones necessary to fly in 2017." 

The SLS is targeted for a test launch with no crew aboard in 2017, 
followed by a mission with astronauts to study an asteroid by as 
early as 2021. NASA is developing the SLS and its new Orion 
spacecraft to provide an entirely new capability for human 
exploration. It will be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew 
and cargo missions, expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and 
enable new missions of exploration in the solar system. 

For more information on SLS, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/sls 
	
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