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World
18 Mar 2022
World's Most Powerful Rocket Begins First Journey to Launchpad
The Index Today
Nasa's Mega Moon – is the newest massive new rocket of NASA that began its first journey to a launchpad on Thursday ahead of a battery of tests that will clear it to blast off to the Moon this coming summer. Around 10,000 people had gathered to watch the event.
Nasa administrator Bill Nelson told a crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen, the world’s most powerful rocket ever right here!” “We imagine, we build, we never stop pushing the envelope of what is possible.”
It left the Kennedy Space Centre’s Vehicle Assembly Building around 5.47pm Eastern Time and began an 11-hour journey on a crawler-transporter to the hallowed Launch Complex 39B, four miles (6.5km) away. With the Orion crew capsule fixed on top, the Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1 stands 322 feet (98 meters) high — taller than the Statue of Liberty, but a little smaller than the 363 feet Saturn V rockets that powered the Apollo missions to the Moon, reported by KhaleejTimes.
Despite this, it will produce 8.8 million pounds of maximum thrust (39.1 Meganewtons), 15 per cent more than the Saturn V, meaning it’s expected to be the world’s most powerful rocket at the time it begins operating.
Photo: AFP
