Bolden: SLS on track

WASHINGTON – NASA Administrator Charles Bolden reassured lawmakers Thursday that the agency isn't foot-dragging on developing a rocket to take astronauts into deep space. "We need a 70 metric-ton vehicle and we are on schedule, on target and on cost," Bolden told members of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA funding. NASA is asking for $17.7 billion for fiscal 2014, which begins Oct. 1. That includes $2.73 billion to develop the Space Launch System (SLS) consisting of an Orion multi-purpose crewed vehicle and the deep-space rocket that will carry it. (Source: Florida Today, 04/25/13) Gulf Coast note: SLS rocket engines are tested at Stennis Space Center, Miss; Orion is built in part at Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, which will also build the core stage of SLS.