Nasa unveils rocket to take humans to asteroids and mars,

"While I was proud to fly in the space shuttle, tomorrow's explorers will dream of one day walking on Mars."


The Space Launch System (SLS), as it is currently known, will be the most powerful launcher everbuilt - more powerful even than the Saturn V rockets that put men on the Moon.



Chairman Bill Nelson, and ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison of the Senate Science and Space subcommittee, along with NASA Administrator Bolden and others today released some details about the program during a Capitol Hill pressconference. The Space Launch System bears a resemblance to the liquid fueled Saturn 5 rockets of the Apollo era, but with added solid rocket boosters like those of the Space Shuttle.

costs of the Space Launch System are about $35 billion, according to senior administration sources and information obtained by The Associated Press. It will carry astronauts in a capsule on top and start test launching in the year 2017

The Obama administration had been under some criticism from space exploration advocates for not advancing a manned space program as shuttle operations wound down