Inside the world's most powerful rocket manufacturing site

The rocket that the US Aeronautics and Aeronautics Agency is making is higher than the Freedom Goddess, heavier than the 7 Boeing 747s, with a capacity greater than 13,400 locomotives combined, and will lead people to reach Mars and beyond.

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NASA is making the most powerful missile ever called the Space Launch System (SLS) . It just completed an important test yesterday.

" This will be a unique missile. This missile will bring people back to the Moon and reach farther to asteroids, Mars, farther away than the places people come to. " , engineer Dawn Stanley of Space Flight Center Marshall, said.

Two astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin put American flags on the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969.(Photo: NASA)

Stanley works at the Center's facility in Huntsville, Alabama, within the most stringent security barriers.This is the starting point of the US rocket and rocket program for 60 years. This 154 square-kilometer area is littered with launch sites, test launchers and missile components or spacecraft.

Looking back at the metal pieces or the sprawling traces of the Saturn 5 hya rocket launcher Space Shuttle, Standley, the new rocket design will be more flexible than any other type before. SLS will meet all requirements in government research missions.

In addition to the important step of the new design, the rocket still applies many of NASA's previous technologies. The first four launchers of SLS use the excess engine of the Shuttle shuttle program, the solid rocket engine is a longer version than the one used for Shuttle, upper-engine based on the design of Saturn 5 in the 1960s.

" In order to fly out of Earth orbit, we still need a rocket engine so we use Shuttle technology, from the Apollo program but at the same time apply new technology. We offer design. new for the main floor, using new production techniques to create efficient and economical bodies , "says Standley.

NASA's Michoud space travel facilities.(Photo: NASA)

Manufacturing and assembly

SLS is being built at NASA's Michoud factory, near the state of New Orleans. The plant is nearly a kilometer long, used to make Saturn V missiles and recently a fuel tank outside of the Shuttle. Because the factory is quite large, most workers here travel by bike or NASA-branded white buggy.

New oil barrels, metal rings and missile roofs are arranged on the factory floor, looking like a modern Stonehenge building. Small parts are made of aluminum panels, sometimes only a few millimeters thick but have a uniform structure. These structures will soon be assembled to form the central core of the rocket, fuel tank, engine and control system.

" Everything related to this program is big. The toolkit is very large, the software is big, but the errors have to be very small, " said Pat Whipps, technical manager of the factory.

The technology used to assemble missile components is called Friction Stir Welding. " Conventional welding technology uses a lot of heat, fire and smoke. Welding friction is completely different because it does not melt the metal completely but instead churns them together ", Brent Gaddes Engineer works for the project. SLS project explained.

In this process, two sheets of material are clamped together and the computer-controlled rotating shaft runs along the contact layer. Completion time even for the longest weld takes only a few minutes, while they are harder and more durable than any other weld created by traditional techniques.

The final assembly room is the most notable area in the factory. This building is 17 storeys high, with only one robotic welding machine - the largest model of stirring friction welding machine ever built

Flight plan

SLS's launch activity is expected to be carried out in 2018, meaning that engineers at the Michoud factory and the Marshall Center have about two years to assemble the first core part, test the engine, push and move the system. final installation at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The first mission of SLS will be without crew.

" We will fly 50,000 km farther than Apollo. We have to balance between safety and efficiency, ensuring that we accept the appropriate risk ," Stanley said.

When all inspections with missiles and spacecraft are complete, the first crew will perform the task at the end of the decade. However, the question of where they will go is still waiting for an answer.

NASA missiles are expected to be launched in 2018. (Photo: NASA)