NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will get a firsthand look at the work being done on the Space Launch System (SLS) avionics and flight software during a visit Friday, March 14 to the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Journalists are invited to participate in the tour and media availability at 1:20 p.m. CDT.
SLS, NASA’s new rocket, will be the largest, most capable launch system ever built to support deep space missions. The avionics system — including hardware, software and operating systems — that will guide the rocket are arranged in flight configuration, and are being tested at Marshall’s System Integration Laboratory.
Bolden will tour the facility and watch flight simulations to see how SLS will perform during launch. In addition, members of the Alabama Congressional delegation and community leaders have been invited to the tour.
Media interested in attending should contact Kimberly Henry in Marshall’s Public & Employee Communications Office at 256-544-0034 no later than 4 p.m. Thursday, March 13. Media must report to the Redstone Arsenal Joint Visitor Control Center at Gate 9, Interstate 565 interchange at Rideout Road/Research Park Boulevard. Vehicles are subject to a security search at the gate. Media will need two photo identifications and proof of car insurance.
The first flight test of the SLS, which will feature a configuration for a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system, is targeted for 2017. As the SLS evolves, it will provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons) to enable missions even farther into our solar system, including an asteroid and Mars.
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