NASA begins first phase of construction of cosmodrome for a flight to Mars
NASA announced the beginning of the first phase of construction of a launch pad to launch SLS and Orion spacecraft. According to the Space Agency, in 20-30 years, first astronauts will orbit the red planet.
Late last year, NASA unveiled new plans to land a man on Mars in the mid 2030's. Key elements of the program is the super-heavy launch vehicle SLS, construction of which will be completed in 2018, and the spacecraft Orion. Both of these items are rockets of Ares family, which were supposed to deliver astronauts to the moon as early as 2018 and to Mars - in 2020-2030.
Launching SLS with "Orion" on-board will require a fundamentally new pad capable of accommodating an extra heavy rocket and flight training systems consistent with NASA's new space vehicle.
Plans on building a similar platform and modernizing the existing systems in the Kennedy Space Flight Center were developed last year, and only recently have they been approved at all levels of NASA’s management.
Now, engineers and specialists of the Center are taking first steps towards the modernization of the launching pad LC-39B at Cape Canaveral to launch SLS into space. NASA hopes that filling and transportation systems, as well as the other components of launching systems will be ready for the first launch of SLS and "Orion" in 2018.
The assembly of the spacecraft prototype has already begun at the Kennedy Center - the first parts of the "Orion" were delivered to Florida in February of this year. A part of the systems, including the spaceship's service module, will be created by the European partners of NASA.
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