Tag: EM-1
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Boeing completes first NASA SLS engine section, getting ready for final Core Stage mate
Officials from NASA along with prime contractor Boeing formally signed off on the first assembly of the most complicated element of the civilian space agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. After a review of data from two months of functional testing at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans, the engine section element of…
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Waiting for Artemis 1 schedule update, official decision on SLS Green Run
A flurry of initiatives announced early in March to find a way to fly Exploration Mission-1 by this time next year were supposed to be complete by now, but NASA has not announced findings or decisions on speeding up schedules and eliminating typical development testing. All of NASA’s internal reviews of the pre-launch assembly and…
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Shuttle veteran RS-25 engines ready for SLS Core Stage installation ahead of Artemis-1
The four RS-25 engines for the first launch of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) have all arrived at the factory where their Core Stage is being completed. The engines were trucked one by one from Aerojet Rocketdyne’s final assembly facility at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New…
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EGS preparing ML-1 for validation tests at the Pad
Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) is getting Mobile Launcher-1 (ML-1) ready to roll out to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Launch Pad 39B next week as it moves through the final phases of integration and testing of the combination launch umbilical tower and platform ahead of the Artemis 1 launch. ML-1 is currently going through verification and…
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NASA Plum Brook Station gets ready for EM-1 Orion testing
NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, is finishing preparations for pre-flight testing of the Orion spacecraft assigned to Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). The Space Environments Complex of the Glenn Research Center test facility will be used to put the in-space configuration of Orion through thermal vacuum and electromagnetic testing that should take a few months.…
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NASA looking at SLS certification schedule changes in ‘Drive to EM-1’
NASA is looking at deferring some programmatic certification activities until after the Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) flight in addition to its other initiatives to shorten the schedule to the inaugural launch. The goal remains to find ways to move the launch date back into late 2020 from the current Spring 2021 forecast. In a May 15…
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NASA EGS Launch Team begins EM-1 countdown simulations
The Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) team that will launch the first integrated Orion and Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle started formal countdown simulations last month in the Launch Control Center (LCC) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The first “run for record” simulation covered different blocks of work in the period of the…
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NASA weighing SLS Green Run versus EM-1 schedule risks
NASA is officially still deciding whether or not to take the time to conduct the big, integrated test of its Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage. “This is why we test” is an oft-quoted philosophy in this phase of development of a new system; in order to keep hopes alive for a first launch within…
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NASA Launch Services Program outlines the alternative launcher review for EM-1
With a mid-2020 Administration deadline for Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) fast approaching, NASA tasked its Launch Services Program (LSP) to study commercial launch alternatives for sending its Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit on an uncrewed test flight. Delays in the assembly and test schedule for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) booster assigned to launch EM-1…
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Boeing, NASA look to finish first SLS Core Stage by end of year
NASA and prime contractor Boeing have reworked the final assembly plan for the first Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage to bring the scheduled completion date back to the end of 2019. With the engine section at the bottom of the rocket pacing the overall schedule into the middle of the year, changing the sequence…