It will have a lift capacity of up to 143-tonnes which means it will be able to travel deep into the solar system.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden said: "We are on a journey of scientific and human exploration that leads to Mars

"And we're firmly committed to building a launch vehicle and other supporting systems that will take us on that journey."

The SLS is the largest and most complex rocket ever devised, and will finally give NASA a way to send its own astronauts into space - a task for which it currently relies on Russia.

The first of the three SLS rockets is projected to cost $7.021 billion, and the entire project around $12 billion.

Meanwhile commercial space agencies like Elon Musk's SpaceX are developing their own rockets and space flight systems to help +NASA make space missions safer and cheaper.
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