Vice President Mike Pence talks with Marshall Space Flight Center Director Todd May and Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AL) (left) about NASA’s Space Launch System, the agency’s new deep space rocket. May explained progress being made on the rocket. The Vice President visited NASA Marshall in Huntsville, Alabama on Sept. 25, 2017, and saw SLS core stage engine section test hardware (on the right). The engine section is the bottom of the core stage where the four RS-25 engines attach and produce two million pounds of thrust. The SLS engine section is undergoing structural testing.

Marshall Space Flight Center Director Todd May (left) presents Vice President Mike Pence (center) with a Space Launch System model. May, Vice President Pence, and Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AL) (right) are standing in front of an SLS test stand where the engine section, the bottom section of the 212-foot-tall core stage, is being tested. Earlier, engineers working on the test gave the Vice President a close up look at test hardware. The test hardware is for the SLS core stage engine section, which is the bottom of the core stage where the four RS-25 engines are housed. The engine section structure must withstand the incredible stresses produced by more than 8 million pounds of thrust during launch and ascent.