Boeing selects ESAB for space launch system project

The SLS will be the largest American rocket ever built and will measure 200 feet taller than the entire space shuttle rocket assembly. The construction of an assembly of this magnitude requires entirely new ways to fabricate, assemble, and weld the main fuel tank structures.

Engineers and experts from ESAB have worked with Boeing and NASA for more than a year to develop the new Vertical Assembly Center (VAC), which is a giant orbital welding system that is capable of supporting the huge rocket fuel tank while circumferentially welding its sections together with the friction stir process. ESAB’s construction of the VAC will be the largest welding machine of its type in history, and is the most precise part of the assembly.

The VAC is being designed, engineered, and built at the ESAB facility in Laxa, Sweden, and is supported by ESAB’s North American Automation Division. The vertical tower assembly is being built in the United States using U.S. steel and component materials.