Space Launch System

The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American two-stage super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle used by NASA. The primary launch vehicle for the Artemis program, SLS is designed to launch the four-person Orion spacecraft for missions to the Moon, on a trans-lunar injection trajectory. The rocket first launched on November 16, 2022, carrying the uncrewed Artemis I mission. Its first crewed launch was for the Artemis II lunar flyby on April 1, 2026, becoming the second launch vehicle to carry humans beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), after NASA's Saturn V of the Apollo program, and the third to ever be planned to fly humans past LEO, after the N1.