<p>In what could be billed as a step to build the most powerful rocket to take astronauts to Mars, NASA has finalised a $2.8 billion contract with Houston-headquartered Boeing Space Exploration to develop its prestigious Space Launch System (SLS).<br /><br /></p>.<p>The six-and-a-half-year SLS contract runs through 2021 and calls for Boeing to deliver two SLS cores - including hydrogen and oxygen tanks - and avionics.<br /><br />"Our teams have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the SLS - the largest ever - will be built safely, affordably and on time," Virginia Barnes, Boeing's Space Launch System vice president and program manager, said in a statement.<br /><br />The rocket will carry the Orion spacecraft that can carry up to four astronauts beyond low-earth orbit on deep-space exploration missions, including the Red planet.<br /><br />The rocket's core stage will get its power from four RS-25 engines - the former space shuttle main engines - built by Aerojet Rocketdyne of Canoga Park.<br /><br />"Besides work on the rocket's core stage, the new SLS contract also authorises Boeing to begin studying a new SLS upper stage - which NASA and Boeing call the Exploration Upper Stage," NASA spokesperson Rachel Kraft said in a statement.<br /><br />The rocket is scheduled for its initial test flight from Cape Canaveral in Florida in 2017.<br /><br />The first mission will launch an empty Orion spacecraft.<br /><br />The second mission in 2021 will launch Orion and a crew of up to four NASA astronauts.</p>
<p>In what could be billed as a step to build the most powerful rocket to take astronauts to Mars, NASA has finalised a $2.8 billion contract with Houston-headquartered Boeing Space Exploration to develop its prestigious Space Launch System (SLS).<br /><br /></p>.<p>The six-and-a-half-year SLS contract runs through 2021 and calls for Boeing to deliver two SLS cores - including hydrogen and oxygen tanks - and avionics.<br /><br />"Our teams have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the SLS - the largest ever - will be built safely, affordably and on time," Virginia Barnes, Boeing's Space Launch System vice president and program manager, said in a statement.<br /><br />The rocket will carry the Orion spacecraft that can carry up to four astronauts beyond low-earth orbit on deep-space exploration missions, including the Red planet.<br /><br />The rocket's core stage will get its power from four RS-25 engines - the former space shuttle main engines - built by Aerojet Rocketdyne of Canoga Park.<br /><br />"Besides work on the rocket's core stage, the new SLS contract also authorises Boeing to begin studying a new SLS upper stage - which NASA and Boeing call the Exploration Upper Stage," NASA spokesperson Rachel Kraft said in a statement.<br /><br />The rocket is scheduled for its initial test flight from Cape Canaveral in Florida in 2017.<br /><br />The first mission will launch an empty Orion spacecraft.<br /><br />The second mission in 2021 will launch Orion and a crew of up to four NASA astronauts.</p>