With its superior lift capability, the SLS will expand our reach in the solar system and allow us to explore cis-lunar space, near-Earth asteroids, Mars and its moons and beyond.

ENGADGET: NASA's Space Launch System to rocket into deep space, unravel the universe's mysteries (video)

Meanwhile, NASA is developing a huge rocket called the Space Launch System and a capsule known as Orion to carry astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 and the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s goals laid out by Obama in 2010.

MSN: Romney pledges to keep US the leader in space exploration