The Space Launch System

NASA's Heavy-Lift Rocket and the Artemis I Mission

By: Anthony Young

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eText | 2 July 2025

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When NASA's SLS-1 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39-B for the Artemis I mission in early morning hours of November 16, 2022, it culminated more than a decade of intense effort by NASA, its prime contractors and thousands of subcontracted companies across the United States and Europe.

This bookshares the exciting story of NASA searching for the best human spaceflight vehicle, after the Space Shuttle era, to start a new path of exploration back to the Moon and later to Mars. It covers the preliminary Ares I and Ares V designs from Project Constellation that formed the foundation for SLS. Then in separate chapters it covers the components of the SLS that include the Core Stage with RS-25 engines, the Solid Rocket Boosters, the Upper Stage, and the rocket's payload: the Orion capsule and Service Module. The final chapter is devoted to the successful Artemis I mission.

This book draws from an abundance of available NASA and contractor documents, special interviews, and illustrated photographs in both color and black and white. You will read about the detailed story of the Space Launch System's design engineering, politics, funding battles, and records regarding the manufacturing of NASA's most powerful rocket that will ultimately launch a new era in human exploration beyond Earth's orbit.