SLs core stage at Stennis
The core stage of the first SLS being installed on a test stand at the Stennis Space Center earlier this year. Work on the SLS there is suspended as the center moved to Stage 4 of NASA's pandemic response plan.

NASA now expects the first launch of the Space Launch System to take place in late 2021, with the coronavirus pandemic at least partially contributing to the latest delays.

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Jeff Foust has more than a decade of experience writing about space policy, entrepreneurial ventures and regulatory affairs. In 2001, he established spacetoday.net to aggregate and summarize the day's space-related news stories. In 2003, he started The...