Alex Priskos, who is leading the work on the boosters that will power NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), will discuss how that launch vehicle will support deep space exploration during a panel discussion at 7 p.m. Feb. 26 at Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City. This event is open to the public and the press.
SLS will be the most powerful rocket in the world with the greatest capability of any launch system ever built to support any destination, any payload and any mission.
The first flight test of the SLS is scheduled for 2017, featuring a configuration for a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity and carrying an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system. 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 to places like Mars.
Priskos, a native of Salt Lake City, manages the Boosters Office for the SLS Program, located at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. He leads the design, development, testing and evaluation of the solid rocket boosters that will power the initial flights of the SLS. These newly designed five-segment solid rocket boosters — provided by ATK of Brigham City, Utah — have successfully completed three development static tests and are preparing for the first qualification motor test later this year.
More about SLS Boosters Office Manager Alex Priskos
Priskos graduated in 1982 from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City with a bachelor’s degree in mining engineering. In 1984, he earned a master’s degree in business administration from Utah State University in Logan.
From 2007 to 2011, Priskos was manager of the first stage for the Ares I rocket as part of the Constellation Program. For the two years prior, he was associate director for Engineering at the Marshall Center. This included serving as a central point of contact between the directorate and Marshall’s Exploration Launch Projects Office for technical support for the Ares Projects. Priskos joined NASA in 2005.
For information about NASA’s SLS Program, visit:
