Boeing has been awarded a $2.8bn contract by Nasa to develop the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
Under the contract, Boeing will be the prime contractor on the SLS core stage, including the avionics.
The company will also be responsible for studying the SLS Exploration Upper Stage, which will further expand mission range and payload capabilities.
The deal follows a critical design review (CDR) on the core stage by Nasa and Boeing teams, and is the final review prior to production beginning.
During the CDR, the final design of the rocket’s cryogenic stages that will hold liquefied hydrogen and oxygen were examined and confirmed by experts.
SLS programme manager Todd May said: "The SLS programme team completed the core stage critical design review ahead of schedule and continues to make excellent progress towards delivering the rocket to the launch pad.
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By GlobalData"Our entire prime contractor and government team has been working full-steam on this programme since its inception."
Other prime contractors that support SLS include ATK of Brigham City, Utah; Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California; and Teledyne Brown Engineering of Huntsville, Alabama.
Components of the core stage test article and flight hardware are being manufactured at Nasa’s Michoud assembly facility near New Orleans, while development and integration of flight computers and software is being carried out at Marshall.
Designed to be flexible to meet various crew and cargo mission requirements, SLS is scheduled for its initial test flight in 2017.
With a 77t lift capacity, the first configuration of the SLS launch vehicle will carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system.
The final evolved two-stage configuration will have a lift capability of 143t to enable missions even farther into our solar system.
Image: Technicians at Nasa’s Michoud assembly facility in New Orleans lower a qualification ring for the SLS core stage. Photo: courtesy of Nasa/MAF.
