Media is invited to see hardware for the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, at United Launch Alliance in Decatur, Alabama. The interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS), which is a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen-based system, will provide the thrust needed to send the Orion spacecraft and 13 secondary payloads beyond the moon before Orion returns to Earth.
This is the last time to see the flight ICPS in Alabama before it is loaded on ULA’s Mariner barge and shipped for final processing and testing at ULA’s Delta IV Operation Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The ICPS will be the first integrated piece of SLS hardware to arrive at the Cape for SLS’s first mission with Orion. In late 2017, it will move to Ground Systems Development Operations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The ICPS was designed and built by ULA and The Boeing Co. in Huntsville, Alabama.
Officials from NASA, Boeing and ULA will be available for interviews. News media interested in attending should contact Lyn Chassagne at 303-218-8002 or lyn.chassagne@ulalaunch.com no later than noon Thursday, Feb. 16, to obtain credentials.
The initial SLS configuration will have a minimum 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capability and be powered by twin solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 engines. The next evolution of the rocket will use a powerful exploration upper stage for more ambitious missions with a 105-metric-ton (115-ton) lift capacity.
