NASA has announced the finalization of their two point eight billion dollar contract with Boeing to build the world’s most powerful rocket as part of their Space Launch System, or SLS. Boeing SLS Vice President, and Program Manager Virginia Barnes, is quoted as saying: “Our teams have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the SLS – the largest ever — will be built safely, affordably and on time."

NASA has announced the finalization of their two point eight billion dollar contract with Boeing to build the world’s most powerful rocket as part of their Space Launch System, or SLS.

Boeing SLS Vice President, and Program Manager Virginia Barnes, is quoted as saying: “We are passionate about NASA’s mission to explore deep space. It’s a very personal mission, as well as a national mandate.”

The finished SLS will reportedly be 321 feet long, and all the pieces are being built in various places around Southern California, including Huntington Beach and Canoga Park, where Aerojet Rocketdyne constructed the RS-25 engines for previous space shuttle main engines.

When it’s launched, the rocket will be carrying the Orion spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin Corp., which is capable of carrying up to four astronauts onboard to destinations in deep-space like asteroids, the moon and even Mars.

The first test flight is scheduled for the year 2017 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and will be an unmanned launch of Orion, followed by plans for a manned launch in 2021.