The Space Launch System core stage, or simply core stage, is the main stage of the American Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, built by The Boeing Company in the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility. At 65 m (212 ft) tall and 8.4 m (27.6 ft) in diameter, the core stage contains approximately 987 t (2,177,000 lb) of its liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen cryogenic propellants. Propelled by 4 RS-25 engines, the stage generates approximately 7.44 MN (1,670,000 lbf) of thrust, about 25% of the Space Launch System’s thrust at liftoff, for approximately 500 seconds, propelling the stage alone for the last 375 seconds of flight. The stage lifts the rocket to an altitude of approximately 162 km (531,380 ft) before separating, reentering the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
The core stage originated in 2011, when the architecture of the Space Launch System as a whole was defined. In the aftermath of the end of the Space Shuttle program and the cancellation of its prospective replacement the Constellation program, the SLS emerged, a super-heavy lift launch vehicle intended for human spaceflight to the Moon. The core stage is the first newly-developed stage of the SLS; the ICPS (Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage) and five-segment boosters are adaptations of existing hardware, to be replaced by the Exploration Upper Stage and BOLE boosters respectively.
Production of core stages began by 2014, but was beset by numerous difficulties in production and testing which delayed the readiness of the first core stage by several years. The core stage first flew on November 16, 2022, on the Artemis 1 mission, in which it performed successfully. As of 2024, the second core stage is completed, with the third and fourth core stages in production and while work has begun for the fifth and sixth, their production pending the transfer of SLS operations to Deep Space Transport, the vehicle’s future operator.
In a launch pad emergency that requires astronauts to evacuate the Orion spacecraft, the crew and other personnel will use the emergency egress system to leave Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Similar to gondolas used for ski lifts, teams will use this catenary system to transport the baskets from the mobile launcher to the perimeter of the launch pad.
Dream Chaser Tenacity (DC101) is the first Dream Chaser spacecraft expected to fly in space. Manufactured by the Sierra Nevada Corporation, it will first fly to the International Space Station as part of the SNC Demo-1 mission in 2025, under the CRS-2 contract.
The Sierra Nevada Corporation was awarded a CRS-2 contract for by NASA for six operational resupply spaceflights to the International Space Station. SNC Demo-1 is a demo flight that will precede the operational resupply flights if the mission is successful.
Tenacity and other Dream Chasers will be mated with a Shooting Star module, which will provide an additional 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) of payload capacity, in addition to the 2,000 lb (910 kg) carried by the space plane. The module will be separated from the Dream Chaser prior to reentry and burn up in the atmosphere, while the Dream Chaser vehicle will perform a runway landing to be reused.
Dream Chaser is an American reusable lifting-body space plane developed by Sierra Space. Originally intended as a crewed vehicle, the Dream Chaser Space System is set to be produced after the Dream Chaser Cargo System cargo variant is operational. The crewed variant is planned to carry up to seven people and cargo to and from low Earth orbit. Sierra plans to manufacture a fleet of the space plane.
The Dream Chaser was originally started in 2004 as a project of SpaceDev, a company that was later acquired by the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) in 2008. In April 2021 the project was taken over by the Sierra Space Corporation (SSC), which at that time was spun off from the Sierra Nevada Corporation as its own fully independent company.
The cargo Dream Chaser is designed to resupply the International Space Station with both pressurized and unpressurized cargo. It is intended to be launched vertically on the Vulcan Centaur rocket and autonomously land horizontally on conventional runways. A proposed version to be operated by European Space Agency (ESA) would launch on an Arianespace vehicle.
The Dream Chaser space plane is designed to be launched on the top of a typical rocket and land like an airplane on a runway. The design has heritage going back decades. Currently, the Dream Chaser will resupply the ISS with cargo.
On-orbit propulsion of the Dream Chaser was originally proposed to be provided by twin hybrid rocket engines capable of repeated starts and throttling. At the time, the SSC’s predecessor, the SNC was also developing a similar hybrid rocket for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. In May 2014, SNC involvement in the SpaceShipTwo program ended.
After the acquisition of Orbitec LLC in July 2014, Sierra Nevada Corporation announced a major change to the propulsion system. The hybrid rocket engine design was dropped in favor of a cluster of Orbitec’s Vortex engines. The new unit would be a pressure-fed three-mode engine. At low- and mid-power regimes it uses monopropellant fuel – hydrogen peroxide – and in high-power demand, the engine adds injection of RP-1 fuel. This increased thrust will be useful to shorten the de-orbit burn duration of the Dream Chaser.
Its thermal protection system (TPS) is made up of silica-based tiles (for most of the belly and upper portion of the heat shield), and a new composite material called Toughened Unipiece Fibrous Reusable Oxidation Resistant Ceramic (TUFROC) to cover the nose and leading edges.
In 2019, it was announced that an expendable Shooting Star cargo module would be part of the Dream Chaser cargo system for CRS-2 flights. The module is a 15-foot-long (4.6 m) attachment to Dream Chaser that will allow the spacecraft to carry an additional 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) of pressurized and unpressurized cargo to ISS. The module supports disposal of unwanted cargo by burning up upon re-entry.
In addition to carrying cargo, the Shooting Star module includes solar panels that supply up to 6 kW of electrical power. It also supplies active and passive thermal management; provides Dream Chaser translation and rotation capability via six mounted thrusters; and supports berthing or docking (in different configurations) to the ISS. Access from ISS to Dream Chaser will involve crew passing through Shooting Star (which supports a shirt-sleeve environment) and through a hatch that separates Shooting Star from Dream Chaser. Sierra Nevada says the module is capable of additional types of missions in LEO or to cis-lunar destinations; they have developed a free-flying variant with additional capabilities.
This view was captured by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover within Gediz Vallis channel, which was likely formed by ancient floodwaters and landslides. After Curiosity drove over a bright stone and cracked it open, scientists discovered it was filled with pure sulfur — something that’s never been seen on Mars before. The rover has discovered lots of sulfur-based minerals in the past, but not pure sulfur. In the video, a separate image of the sulfur crystals appears embedded roughly where the rock was found; the camera’s view of the rock was blocked by the rover at the time this panorama was taken.
You’ll also see Curiosity’s robotic arm, which is raised after drilling its 41st hole at a location nicknamed “Mammoth Lakes.” The sample collected by Curiosity was dropped into instruments in its belly, and will help scientists understand how this area formed.
The rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to take this panorama on June 19, 2024, the 4,220th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. It’s made up of 336 individual images that were stitched together. The color has been adjusted to match lighting conditions as the human eye would see them on Earth.
Subscribe to blog posts using RSS
