NASA administrator Charles Bolden called it a "journey of scientific and human exploration that leads to Mars."

The Space Launch System, or SLS, is the first exploration-class vehicle designed to get beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo program. NASA says it will be the world's most powerful rocket.

With a lift capacity of as much as 130 metric tons, the SLS could carry between two and six astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft, plus all the equipment and fuel needed to support missions to the moon, an asteroid or Mars.

"We’re firmly committed to building the launch vehicle and other supporting systems that will take us on that journey," Bolden said.

From inception to first launch, the SLS program is expected to cost a little more than $7 billion. If all goes according to plan, NASA will send its first crewed flight in 2021. This gets the space agency one step closer to its goal of sending a manned mission to Mars by 2030.

NASA engineers are already gathering the parts SLS will need, including RS-25 thrusters, the same main engines that the space shuttle used. Other assembly facilities are turning out entirely new pieces of flight hardware as the development phase gets underway.

NASA is calling the SLS the world's "most capable" rocket. The next phase for the spaceship is the Critical Design Review. If everything goes according to plan, an unmanned test launch should happen no later than 2018.

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