Bolden, Vitter to see SLS progress

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana will visit the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans Jan. 13. They will be updated on construction of the facility that will manufacture the massive core stage of NASA's Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket and progress on launching it on its targeted first flight test in 2017. SLS will be the world's largest rocket, and the Michoud Vertical Assembly Center will be home to one of the world's largest welding tools when the facility is completed in March. NASA is developing the SLS and Orion spacecraft to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. They will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration in the solar system, including to an asteroid and Mars. (Source: PRNewswire, 01/10/14)