Tue, Sep 09, 2014

NASAs new Vertical Assembly Center (VAC), a 170-foot-high marvel of machinery that will be used to assemble elements of the agency's Space Launch System (SLS), is now complete and ready to weld parts for the rocket that is designed to send humans on deep space missions.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will be among those to attend the ribbon cutting for the enormous new tool at 11 a.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 12, at the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the core stage is being built.

The Vertical Assembly Center will be used to join domes, rings and barrels segments to complete the SLS fuel tanks. The tool also will be used to perform evaluations of the completed welds. Towering more than 200 feet tall, with a diameter of 27.6 feet, the core stage will store cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to feed the vehicles RS-25 engines.

Bolden also will visit NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, following the Michoud events to tour the historic B-2 Test Stand, along with other NASA representatives. The B-2 Test Stand was used to test the S-1C stage on the Saturn V moon rocket and the Main Propulsion Test Article, the configuration of three main engines flown on space shuttle missions. The stand will next be used to test the core stage of SLS and its configuration of four RS-25 engines.

(NASA artist's depiction of SLS launch)

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NASA Administrator Marks Completion Of Worlds Largest Spacecraft Welding Tool