An artist's sketch of the SLS.

The U.S. space agency disclosed Wednesday it is building a more powerful rocket capable of propelling astronauts to deep space missions, including going to asteroids and the planet Mars.
NASA administrator and former space shuttle astronaut Charles Bolden revealed the Space Launch System in a press conference at the Senate Dirksen Building in Washington. He was with U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and Bill Nelson, both SLS supporters.
Bolden is touting the SLS as the most powerful rocket to be built. It will be more powerful than the Saturn V rocket that sent astronauts to the moon and the retired space shuttle. It will have five main engines, including strap-on boosters, compared to the space shuttle's three.
NASA is also building an astronaut capsule, which the SLS will lift when it debuts in 2017.
The SLS will be capable of lifting from 70 to 130 tons of payload, including the astronaut capsule, habitation module, and a landing craft that will land in the surface of another planet.
Rockets like the Ariane 5 and Delta IV Heavy can only lift 20 tons of equipment.
Aside from carrying unmanned and manned missions to other planets, the SLS will place equipment or satellites to orbit.
"This launch system will create good-paying American jobs, ensure continued U.S. leadership in space, and inspire millions around the world," Bolden said in a statement, according to NASA.
Last year, U.S. President Barack Obama tasked NASA to bring astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars by 2030.