These are the numbers behind the insanely powerful SLS moon rocket

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The Space Launch System, or SLS, has been in the works for some time now, but the engineers working on it are just beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. A few days ago, they began installing flight software on the three computers that would help the rocket navigate its way up. At the same time, the huge piece of engineering is slowly coming to an end.

For that reason, we thought this would be a great time to take a closer look at the thing that’s supposed to open heaven for us, this time, hopefully, forever. And we’ll do that by taking a quick look at the hard-to-turn-around numbers that make up this wonderful piece of engineering.

The SLS is described as a super heavy launch vehicle that brings “unprecedented power and capabilities.” It is the only rocket that will be able to propel Orion away from the grip of Earth’s gravity, to the Moon.

Artemis I, the experimental mission that launches later this year, will use a Block 1 configuration. This translates to a 322-foot (98-meter) rocket that weighs 5.75 million pounds (2.6 million kg or 2,800 tons). This will help Orion’s rocket move 280,000 miles (450,000 km) from Earth, in an orbit 40,000 miles (64,000 km) farther from the Moon.

In order for a rocket to do all this, it needs some serious hardware. The basic stage of the thing, built by Boeing, derives its power from four RS-25 engines fueled by 730,000 gallons (2.763 million liters) of highly cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne and not unlike the engines used on the Space Shuttle, it was reconfigured to suit the needs of the SLS with the addition of, among other things, a new engine control unit and nozzle isolation.

Each engine should develop 512,000 lbs. of thrust for a total of more than 2 million during takeoff. The primary stage engines for its mission are supported by two solid rocket boosters, also obtained from the Shuttle program, and modified by Northrop Grumman. With them, the total thrust for the SLS jumps to 8.8 million pounds (15 percent more than the Saturn V rocket that supported the Apollo program), and is expected to grow to 9.5 million pounds. From paying once block 2 of the SLS is up and running a few years from now.

This gigantic piece of engineering was created with one goal in mind: to lift the Orion off the Earth and into an orbit that would allow it to launch itself away from the Moon. However, it can only lift and send 83,700 pounds (38 tons) of cargo into deep space, including the Orion capsule and its crew.

Getting the SLS to near readiness was no easy task. Work on the rocket began in 2011, and the cost of the project was $18.6 billion in 2020. And spending does not end there. Every time an SLS rocket launches something into space, the United States will need about $2 billion to cover expenses.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, given how most of the money has been and will be spent in the United States, where more than 1,000 local companies, large or small, are involved in the project.

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