SLS is the most powerful booster the world has
even seen. Beginning in the 2020’s it will propel
NASA astronauts within the agency’s Orion crew
capsule on exciting missions of exploration to
deep space destinations including potentially the
Moon, asteroids and Mars - venturing further out
than humans ever have before.
The LH2 qualification test article was welded
together using the world’s largest welder – known
as the Vertical Assembly Center, or VAC, at Michoud. The state-of-the-art welding giant stands
170 feet tall and 78 feet wide. It complements
the world-class welding toolkit being used to
assemble various pieces of the SLS core stage
including the domes, rings and barrels that have
been previously manufactured.
The fuel tank is a giant - measuring approximately 130-feet in length and 27.6 feet (8.4 m) in
diameter.
The qual test article is the immediate precursor to the actual first LH2 flight tank now being
welded.
Technicians assembled the LH2 tank by feed