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WASHINGTON – Just days after NASA said it was ready to conduct a second static firing test of the space launch system’s center stage, the agency announced on February 22 that the test would be delayed due to due to a valve problem.
NASA said it was postponing the Green Run static fire test, which was scheduled for February 25, after discovering a problem with one of the eight valves called “prevalves” associated with the four RS-25 main engines. upstairs. The valve, which supplies liquid oxygen, “was not functioning properly,” NASA said in a statement, but did not specify the problem.
Engineers identified the problem during weekend preparations for the test. NASA has said it will work with Boeing, the main phase prime contractor, to “identify a way forward in the coming days and reschedule the hot fire test,” but has not set a new one. date for the test.
This is not the first time that a problem with the valves has delayed the central stage Green Run test. In November, NASA reported an issue with a prevalence of liquid hydrogen on the center stage, which forced workers to design a special tool to repair the valve on the test bench. That, along with the effects of a tropical storm that passed through the Stennis Space Center in late October, delayed the stage’s wet dress rehearsal by several weeks, where the stage is loaded with thruster and goes through a countdown of training.
The announcement of the latest delay came just three days after NASA and industry officials held a briefing where they expressed confidence they were ready to conduct the static fire test on February 25. weather forecast at the Mississippi test site.
“The team worked really hard in some difficult situations. We’re on track to make the 25th, ”said John Shannon, vice president and SLS program manager at Boeing, during the briefing.
At the same briefing, NASA officials said they remain cautiously optimistic that SLS may make its first launch on the Artemis 1 mission, an unmanned test flight of the Orion spacecraft, before the end of the year despite long delays in the Green Run test campaign. Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development at NASA headquarters, said the mission could launch as early as October if all went well, then admitted there would likely be some issues going on. road.
“First of all, we really need to have this fire burning behind us,” he said, referring to Green Run’s static fire test. “It’s the most important thing we have in front of us.”
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