A Fascinating Look Inside the Boeing Plant Working With NASA to Build a Really Powerful Rocket to Mars

Great Big Story went inside a Boeing plant in New Orleans that’s currently collaborating with NASA to build the Space Launch System, an incredibly powerful rocket that could quite possibly put the first human on Mars. They spoke with a number of employees who are working on this exciting project, including Chad Bryant, the NASA Stage Core Manager who explained the fuel process that would get the rocket to Mars safely.

The core stage is the central piece of the rocket. It contains oxygen and hydrogen that mixes together to form a very explosive combustion two million pounds of thrust. That gets it off the pad and deeper into space than ever before. Going to Mars is not easy and so it requires a lot of detail in the design of the rocket.