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NASA will make another attempt next month to test firing of its massive Space Launch System rocket after its first test was halted, the agency said Friday evening.
The rocket’s 212-foot-high center stage will attempt to ignite its four engines for eight minutes at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. This attempt is the last milestone “Green Run” test before the giant rocket is shipped to Florida for launch to the moon.
The rocket’s four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines fired together for the first time earlier this month. But what was supposed to be an eight-minute test lasted just over a minute – a much shorter run time than what engineers needed to get to Florida. The SLS kernel has been in development for a decade, and has consistently been overdue and over budget.
“Completing a second hot fire test will allow the team to repeat the operations of the first hot fire test and obtain data on how the center stage and engines are operating over a longer period that simulates more activities during rocket launch and ascent, ”NASA said. in a blog post on Friday night.
NASA is targeting November for the first launch of the SLS, but the agency’s inspector general and the Government Accountability Office, the country’s largest watchdog agency, say it’s unlikely. Instead, they have indicated that the launch will likely be in 2022. NASA remains publicly optimistic.
“It is still possible to launch Artemis I this year with this test in February,” said NASA spokeswoman Kathryn Hambleton. The edge.
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