Boeing Approves KLH for SLS Program

Boeing has approved KLH Industries as a machining supplier for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) program. The SLS is a flagship rocket system that will set new standards for commercial and deep space exploration.

In 2011, KLH-machined parts were aboard space shuttle STS-135, but this is KLH’s first opportunity to machine directly for the SLS program.

According to a NASA press release, the SLS “booster will be America’s most powerful since the Saturn V rocket that carried Apollo astronauts to the moon and will launch humans to places no one has gone before.”

Proposed missions for the SLS suggest an initial flight-test in 2017, where the SLS would take the Orion spacecraft on an unmanned mission around the moon. The first manned mission is targeted for 2021.

Likely “near-Earth” destinations include asteroids, the Moon, and Mars, with a fully evolved SLS system by 2032.