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NASA successfully tested the center stage of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the second time on Thursday afternoon.
The powerful lunar rocket’s four RS-25 engines fired for eight minutes and 19 seconds at approximately 4:37 p.m. ET at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
NASA TO PERFORM SECOND ROCKET TEST FOR ARTEMIS MOON MISSIONS
The 212-foot-high central stage “Green Run” series hot-shot test marks what NASA says is a “critical milestone” ahead of their future lunar missions.
The main stage design will be used for all configurations of the 322-foot-high SLS rocket, and the team will use data from their tests to validate the design for flight.
“The SLS is the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA, and in today’s test, the rocket’s center stage generated over 1.6 million pounds of thrust in seven seconds. The SLS is an incredible technical feat and the only rocket capable of powering America’s next-generation missions that will place the first woman and the next man on the moon, “Acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk said in a press release from Thursday.
“Today’s successful hot fire test of the central stage of the SLS is an important step in NASA’s goal of bringing humans back to the lunar surface – and beyond,” he added.
NASA’s first hot fire test on the center stage of the SLS was carried out on January 16, when all four engines fired for about a minute. The test was halted earlier than expected due to an error in the hydraulic system, reinforcing the need for a second, longer hot fire test.
The second hot fire test allowed engineers to try a multitude of operational conditions, such as thrust direction, top-to-bottom throttling, and engine power up to 100%.
The center stage thruster tanks can hold over 700,000 gallons of cryogenic thruster and simulate nearly 2 million pounds of thrust.
In addition, the scene – of which Boeing is the prime contractor – is technologically advanced, with sophisticated flight software and avionics systems, propulsion systems and hydraulic systems.
Then the stage will be refurbished as needed and shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the launch of the Artemis I mission.
Artemis I, which is very tentatively scheduled for takeoff by the end of the year, will use an SLS rocket to send an unequipped Orion spacecraft in flight around the moon and back to Earth.
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“Today is a big day for NASA, Stennis and this country’s human space exploration program. This latest test of the Green Run series represents an important step for the return of this country to the Moon and a possible mission to Mars, ”said Richard Gilbrech, director of the Stennis Center. . “So many people across the agency and the country have contributed to this fundamental milestone of SLS, but special recognition is due to the mixed team of test operators, engineers and support staff for an exemplary effort. in the conduct of the test today.
The John C. Stennis Space Center is the the biggest Rocket engine test complex.
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