Up to Speed

摘要

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) is being designed to launch astronauts to a future moon-orbiting space station and perhaps one day to Mars. Its largest component, the core-stage fuel tank, is 70 feet tall and 28 feet in diameter-and poses some industrial-strength challenges in testing. Last January, a ground-test-only version of the tank was raised into a structural test stand, custom-built for the task at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.