The first mission of American deep space rocket will launch "a spaceship with 13 stars".

The first mission of American deep space rocket will launch "a spaceship with 13 stars".

NASA announced that the Space Launch System, a high-thrust launch vehicle developed for deep space exploration, will carry out its first mission in 20 18, not only launching Orion spacecraft, but also launching 13 microsatellites called cubic satellites.

The first task of the "space launch system" is to fly to a stable orbit farther than the moon, mainly to test the performance of the rocket integrated with the Orion spacecraft. The spacecraft launched this time will not carry people. NASA said that launching some micro-satellites into low-earth orbit as a secondary load will also help promote future human exploration missions in deep space, including Mars travel. Because microsatellites are basically confined to low-earth orbit.

Bill Hill, head of the agency, said in a statement: "The space launch system provides an excellent opportunity to perform scientific tasks and test key technologies outside low Earth orbit. The ability of this rocket to send Orion spacecraft into deep space is unprecedented. It can also carry 13 microsatellites to advance our understanding of deep space at the lowest cost. "

According to the plan, the "Space Launch System" will send the "Orion" spacecraft into a stable orbit outside the moon in its first flight; When the Orion spacecraft is separated from the rocket and flies to a safe distance, these microsatellites will be released one by one from the spacecraft.

Finally, the microsatellite will turn on the signal transmitter to send signals, and the ground receiving station will listen to the signals to confirm whether they are working normally. The "Space Launch System" will be the main launch vehicle that NASA will rely on in the next few decades, and its capacity will exceed that of Saturn 5 rocket used in the US moon landing project, and it is still under development. Orion spacecraft will be a new generation of manned spacecraft in the United States after the space shuttle, and it is still being tested.