To get there, the agency is building the Space Launch System, a colossal rocket capable of putting in orbit all the tonnes of equipment that will be needed on such a venture.

BBC: UK astronaut Tim Peake makes 'asteroid splashdown'

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

Following completion of the current Ares V super-heavy-lift rocket program, the Space Launch System, I believe that the government should commercialize all future launch vehicle development and operations.

FORBES: Rescuing NASA From Terminal Public Apathy

The new mega-rocket, called the Space Launch System, passed a series of reviews that laid out the technical, performance, cost and schedule requirements for the heavy-lift booster.

MSN: Giant deep-space rocket passes key test - Technology & science - Space - Space.com | NBC News

Even the shuttle will live on, in some sense, since the Space Launch System the unromantic name of the beefy rocket needed to loft astronauts and cargoes into high orbits or farther into the solar system will be built partly from recycled shuttle parts in an effort to save money and use familiar technology.

ECONOMIST: The space shuttle

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop these capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration.

ENGADGET: NASA awards Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada $30 million in contracts

The Space Launch System, or SLS for short, is NASA's go-to rocket to carry NASA's planned Orion capsule and possibly other future payloads beyond low-Earth orbit.

MSN: Giant deep-space rocket passes key test - Technology & science - Space - Space.com | NBC News