NASA administrator Charles Bolden is scheduled for a stop in north Alabama.
The space agency says Bolden will visit the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville on Friday afternoon.
Marshall is NASA's main center dedicated to developing space propulsion systems. Engineers there are now working on the Space Launch System, which are heavy-lift rockets being designed to take U.S. astronauts back into space.
Bolden will see some of the advanced methods being used to produce engines for the new rocket system. Those include a system called selective laser melting, which is part of a system that bonds metal parts without traditional welding.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.