For the SLS vehicle, the engines will fire at 109 per cent thrust level and provide a combined two million pounds of thrust.
SpaceX and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk. Photo / Supplied
According to NASA, the engines are now being integrated into the rocket's core stage – the largest ever built and taller than a 20-story building.
Nasa hopes the SLS will be used for missions to Mars and other planets deeper in the solar system.
With regards to the first step of conquering Mars, Mr Muilenberg said: "I'm convinced that the first person that gets to Mars is going to get there on a Boeing rocket."
Whilst there are definitive plans to take humans in to orbit and beyond, there are no intentions to launch a car.
When quizzed as to whether Boeing would be sending a Camaro into space, Mr Muilenburg quipped that he might bring it back to Earth.
This appears to be a dig at Musk and his Tesla Roadster that was sent into space on-board the first flight of SpaceX's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket back in February.
Mr Muilenburg said at the forum: "I certainly anticipate that we're going to put the first person on Mars during my lifetime, and I'm hopeful that we'll do it in the next decade."
"Space has always been part of the DNA of our company.
SpaceX shows the company's spacesuit in Elon Musk's red Tesla sports car which was launched into space during the first test flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket. Photo / AP
"What we're working on today with Space Launch System is bigger than the Apollo program.
The comments that Boeing intends to put human beings on Mars in the next ten years come in the same week that SpaceX's president and COO, Gwynne Shotwell, made the claim.
Ms Shotwell said SpaceX will take humans to Mars "within a decade" at a TED conference in Vancouver on Wednesday.
The timing of these comments reignites the rivalry between the aerospace engineering behemoths.
In an interview in December of 2017, Muilenburg claimed that Boeing would beat Elon Musk to Mars.
A typically brief and direct response from the founder of Tesla, SpaceX and Paypal implied the challenge was accepted.
With a vastly different engineering model to previous space missions, SpaceX has revolutionised the way rockets are designed and built
Ms Shotwell said the engineers are "able to let physics drive the design of these systems" and that they can design rockets with a "blank piece of paper".
As a result, more efficient and reusable models have been made, rapidly accelerating the timeline the company had for its space exploration programme.
Whilst SpaceX engineers have more working freedom, Boeing is restricted to making use of existing systems and refining antiquated technology.
