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The Space Launch System’s core stage engine section structural qualification test article is stacked and prepared for shipment on the barge Pegasus from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama where it will be structurally tested. This marks the first delivery of a major SLS vehicle element manufactured at Michoud. The rocket’s engine section is the bottom of the core stage where the four RS-25 engines are attached. The engine section test article minus engines was vertically stacked with hardware on top that simulates part of the rocket’s liquid hydrogen tank that joins to the engine section at the bottom of the 212-foot-tall SLS core stage. The Pegasus barge also will transport the entire flight core stage to NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, for testing and then on to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration into the SLS vehicle and launch.

Credits: NASA/MSFC Michoud image: Jude Guidry

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Engineers at Orbital ATK’s facility in Elkton, Maryland, recently completed a successful test of the Orion Launch Abort System motor designed to steer the astronauts away to safety in the unlikely event of an emergency. The Launch Abort System includes three motors, and the motor tested was the attitude control motor. This motor consists of a solid propellant gas generator, with eight proportional valves equally spaced around the outside of the three-foot diameter motor. Together, the valves can exert up to 7,000 pounds of steering force to the vehicle in any direction upon command from the Orion spacecraft and are designed to safely steer Orion after an ascent abort.  This is a critical safety enhancement of Orion for our journey to Mars. The test was a success thanks to the collaborative efforts of NASA, Lockheed Martin and Orbital ATK.

Full Video: https://youtu.be/YPJNWoMklfQ

Credit: Orbital ATK

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Finally, we become Earth Independent, building on what we've learned on the space station and in deep space to send humans to low-Mars orbit in the early 2030s.

This phase will also test the entry, descent and landing techniques needed to get to the Martian surface and study what's needed for in-situ resource utilization or "living off the land." NASA is already studying potential "Exploration Zones" on Mars that would offer compelling science research and provide resources our astronauts can use.

Science missions are already in the Independent phase, with the next rover due in 2020. We will also conduct a round-trip robotic demonstration mission with sample return in the late 2020s.

Mars is the next tangible frontier for human exploration, and it's an achievable goal. There are challenges to pioneering Mars, but we know they are solvable. We are well on our way to getting there, landing there, and living there.

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Next, we move into the Proving Ground, conducting a series of missions near the moon  -- we call it "cislunar space" -- that will test the capabilities we will need to live and work at Mars. Astronauts on the space station are only hours away from Earth, but the proving ground is days away, a natural stepping stone to a Mars mission, which will be months away from home.

The first of these missions will launch NASA's powerful new rocket, the Space Launch System, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will carry the Orion spacecraft (without astronauts) thousands of miles beyond the moon during an approximately three week mission (Watch Mission Animation Video). Next up, astronauts will climb into Orion for a similar mission, traveling farther than humans have ever traveled before.

Also in the 2020s, we'll send astronauts on a yearlong mission into this deep space proving ground, verifying habitation and testing our readiness for Mars.

Another proving ground milestone is the Asteroid Redirect Mission. NASA will send a robotic spacecraft to capture an asteroid boulder and put it in a safe orbit around the moon. Astronauts on Orion will then explore the asteroid, returning to Earth with samples. This two-part mission will test both deep space spacewalking and sampling techniques and Solar Electric Propulsion, which we’ll need to send cargo as part of human missions to Mars. (Watch Video: Asteroid Redirect Mission)

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After almost 20 years in space, NASA's Cassini spacecraft begins the final chapter of its remarkable story of exploration: its Grand Finale.

Between April and September 2017, Cassini will undertake a daring set of orbits that is, in many ways, like a whole new mission. Following a final close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan, Cassini will leap over the planet's icy rings and begin a series of 22 weekly dives between the planet and the rings.

No other mission has ever explored this unique region. What we learn from these final orbits will help to improve our understanding of how giant planets – and planetary systems everywhere – form and evolve.

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News & Features - Cassini Legacy: 1997-2017

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The latest stories from Saturn. Explore a historical archive dating back to the earliest days of the mission.

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NASA is on a journey to Mars, with a goal of sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s. That journey is already well under way.

For decades, the agency and its partners have sent orbiters, landers and rovers, dramatically increasing our knowledge about the Red Planet and paving the way for future human explorers. The Curiosity rover has gathered radiation data to help us protect future astronauts, and the upcoming Mars 2020 rover will study the availability of Martian resources, including oxygen.

There is more to learn as we expand humanity's presence into the solar system: Was Mars once home to microbial life or is it today? Can it be a safe home for humans? What can the Red Planet teach us about our own planet's past, present and future?

Building on the robotic legacy, the human exploration of Mars crosses three thresholds, each with increasing challenges as humans move farther from Earth: Earth Reliant, the Proving Ground, and Earth Independent.

Earth Reliant exploration is focused on research aboard the International Space Station. The orbiting microgravity laboratory serves as a world-class test bed for the technologies and communications systems needed for human missions to deep space. Astronauts are learning about what it takes to live and work in space for long periods of time, increasing our  understanding of how the body changes in space and how to protect astronaut health.

We're also working with our commercial crew and cargo partners to provide access to low-Earth orbit and eventually stimulate new economic activity, allowing NASA to continue using the station while preparing for missions beyond.