JON: I pinch myself every morning that I work
for NASA because we get to do the things
that most people can't. >>ROBERT: It's exciting. It's
something that not a lot of people get
to do -- to take part in our country
coming together and trying to send
equipment and men to Mars. That... how could
one not get excited about being a player
in that. >> PRESIDENT KENNEDY:  The exploration of space will go ahead,
whether we join in it or not and it is
one of the great adventures of all times.
TODD: The Space Launch System is the nation's
next deep space rocket. We haven't
traveled into deep space since the
Apollo days and we're now building a
rocket that is more capable and more
powerful than the venerable Saturn 5. My
name is Todd May. I'm the director of
Marshall Space Flight Center. At Marshall
Space Flight Center we actually enable
deep space exploration either by humans
or through robotic spacecraft to be able
to see into the depths of the universe.
The only rockets in the world that lift
humans today and the ones we're
designing to take humans to space
station will only take us about 300
miles up into space. The SLS is being
inherently designed to carry the Orion
capsule into deep space to places like
the moon which is hundreds of thousands
of miles away and eventually to Mars, the
ultimate goal, which is 50 to 200 million miles away.
This is a very large and complex rocket
and it takes a lot of engineering to
make it all work together. All of the
systems engineering and integration of
this rocket are actually done right here
in Huntsville, Alabama. >>ROBERT: One of the things
here that's unique to Marshall and the
structural test capability is the size
and scale. That's what we are the niche
within NASA for testing structures
of this size and scale.>>TODD: Marshall really
puts the rocket in rocket city. This has
really been a jewel of Alabama for over
50 years now. Everything from the
original Saturn 5 to the Hubble Space
Telescope and now the Space Launch
System which will take us back in a deep
space -- all of those programs are managed
right here in Huntsville, Alabama. Over 50
years ago President Kennedy talked
about going to the moon. He gave us a
challenge to get to the moon by the end
of the decade. But he said space was
the new ocean and that we intend to
explore it and be second to none. That
ocean still beckons and the thing we're
doing here at Marshall Space Flight
Center is building a rocket that will
actually allow us to go out and sail
those oceans.>>PRESIDENT KENNEDY: Many years ago the great
British explorer George Mallory who
was to die on Mount Everest was asked
why did he want to climb it. He said
because it is there.  Well space is there.
And we're going to climb it.
