NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center
Artist's rendering of an aerial view of SLS liftoff. The first flight test of NASA's new rocket is scheduled for 2017.
Right now, NASA is constructing a monster rocket, called the Space Launch System, that will be the most powerful rocket ever built.
This rocket is designed for NASA's future deep-space missions. It will launch four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft toward far-off destination, which could include an asteroid and even Mars in the not-to0-distant future.
NASA's SLS will be able to carry more than twice the payload weight as any of the agency's space shuttles. Moreover, it will generate 12% more thrust than NASA's Saturn V rocket - the most powerful launch vehicle in history that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon.
NASA recently received an additional $1.7 billion to continue building SLS. And it's scheduled to send astronauts to the moon in November 2018 for NASA's first major deep-space mission since the Apollo program.
To see how SLS compares to other rockets, check out this infographic created by NASA:
