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A NASA rocket critical test ended with a shutdown on Saturday, just over a minute after what was scheduled to be an eight-minute test. This test was a vital checkpoint for NASA’s space launch system, which has been seriously delayed. The SLS is expected to play a key role in the agency’s Artemis program to bring astronauts back to the moon.
During today’s Green Run test, all four of the SLS core rocket engines fired for just over a minute while docked in the NASA rocket test bench. The team had planned to start the engines for about eight minutes, roughly the same time it will take to launch future missions to the moon.
The first 250 seconds of the scheduled test were especially important to the engineering team – during this time, they planned to move the motors through a series of maneuvers designed to test the responsiveness of the motors while they were on. .
During the test, approximately 1,400 sensors collected data about the rocket and its performance. Among other things, the sensors monitored the core for vibration, temperature, acoustics, and stress. Even though the test was halted, these sensors collected a lot of data that could eventually help NASA determine the way forward.
The SLS has been in development for years and was originally slated to make its in-flight debut in 2017. Instead, it has been plagued by delays and significantly over budget. NASA had already pushed back the rocket’s debut to November 2021 and still hoped to make that launch date, even after a December 2020 delay in their testing schedule.
The rocket being tested today was to be part of that first launch – an unmanned mission called Artemis I that would send NASA’s Orion spacecraft around the moon. It’s unclear how today’s test results might affect the timing of this mission.
NASA plans to hold a press conference tonight about two hours after the test.
Development…
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