NASA’s powerful Space Launch System rocket (www.nasa.gov) is closer to launching the Orion spacecraft, now that the first of its liquid-propellant tanks has been manufactured and is ready for testing.

The unmanned Orion Exploration Mission-1 will be launched from the historic pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, sending Orion some 70,000km beyond the moon before it returns to Earth, paving the way for future manned missions. It is scheduled for 2019.

Assembled at NASA’s Michoud facility in New Orleans, the liquid-oxygen tank (pictured) is ready for qualification, while the remaining three tanks are being processed.

All the tanks must pass structural testing and then prove they can do exactly what they were designed to do. At NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, they will be connected to the engines and tested under launch conditions.

The liquid oxygen and hydrogen tanks hold over 2.6 million litres of propellant to power the rocket’s core stage, which has four RS-25 engines plus two solid-fuel boosters.