'Ladies and gentlemen, the world's most powerful rocket, ever, right here!' said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, pointing to the SLS rocket just behind him. 'And it's back to the moon and then onto Mars!'
NASA's new SLS moon rocket, the most powerful built to date, was rolled out of its processing building at the Kennedy Space Center for the first time Thursday, kicking off an 11-hour trip to the launch pad and a dress rehearsal countdown April 3 to clear the way for a long-awaited maiden flight.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the world's most powerful rocket, ever, right here!" said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, pointing to the SLS rocket just behind him."And it's back to the moon and then onto Mars!" "When this monster rocket lifts off, it will carry all of our greatest hopes in the heavens," Nelson said."I want to thank all of you, all of these workers, the whole space team ... may God bless you."
The rocket then will be hauled back to the VAB for servicing and then back out to the pad for launch on the Artemis 1 mission. SpaceX's planned Starship, made up of two fully reusable stages, will be more powerful than even the SLS, generating a staggering 17 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.
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