NASA announced Wednesday a plan to build a giant deep-space rocket to transport astronauts to the moon, Mars and other destinations for its space explorations.

Reuters reported the rocket project would cost $10 billion through 2017, when the first test flight of the Space Launch System would be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

On top of the rocket budget, NASA would spend $2 billion to refurbish the spaceport at Cape Canaveral to provide space for the mammoth rocket.

The rocket would be more powerful than the Apollo-era Saturn booster that carried crews and equipment to the moon between 1969 and 1972.

"This is a tremendous step forward and really puts us in a position to go forward with exploration," NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier told Reuters.

The new rocket is based on the space shuttle's liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engines and fuel tanks, coupled initially with upgraded solid-fuel shuttle booster rockets.

Compared with the now-retired shuttle, which could carry about 50,000 pounds (22,500 kg) to an orbit about 300 miles from Earth, the new booster is intended to lift as much as 140,000 pounds (63,000 kg) of cargo.

NASA's announcement was made after a year-long extensive discussion with Congress over the project's cost, scope and technical parameters. The Obama administration withheld its plans while it obtained an independent cost estimate for the Space Launch System.

"We have been frustrated by the time delays," said Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican who serves on a NASA oversight committee.