NASA intends to launch the world's most powerful rocket in 2017. This launch vehicle will eventually take humans to Mars.

The Space Launch System or SLS will be built by the Defense, Space & Security Division of The Boeing Company based in Chicago. NASA recently approved a US$2.8 billion contract that will see Boeing build the spacecraft.

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SLS will be designed to bring astronauts and cargo beyond low-Earth orbit or LEO to the Moon, Mars, asteroids and into deep space. NASA reviewed the core stage's final design plan and gave Boeing permission to start the production of the SLS. NASA's contract with Boeing will end in 2021.

NASA expects the first flight of the SLS to lift-off in 2017 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It said President Barack Obama made the decision to build the SLS as the U.S. re-assess its future space missions.

SLS' booster will be developed at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility and will be put together to transport to the Kennedy Space Center.

NASA has also given Boeing permission to conduct a preliminary study for the development of an upper stage that could be used for the bigger version of the rocket.

The SLS launch vehicle will be upgraded with more powerful versions in the future. Its initial Block I version (without an upper stage) will be capable of lifting a payload of 70 metric tons to LEO.

Block IA/B will lift some 105 metric tons while the final Block II SLS with an integrated upper Earth Departure Stage will have a payload lift capability of at least 130 metric tons to LEO.

Boeing said its teams have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the SLS, the largest rocket ever made, will be built safely, affordably and on time.

NASA said the SLS program is integrated with its Orion Crew and Service Module that will allow astronauts return to Earth in a four-person module.

The first flight-test of the Block I variant of the SLS, called Exploration Mission 1, is scheduled to fly in 2017.