Tag: ICPS
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NASA rolls back SLS, fixes aiming for April launch
NASA has rolled back the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The roll began around 9:45am local time on Wednesday and was completed by the evening. The decision follows an unexpected interruption in helium flow within the rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion…
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Final ICPS arrives in Florida for Artemis III SLS launch
United Launch Alliance (ULA) delivered the last-ever Space Launch System (SLS) Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) from its Decatur, Alabama, factory to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in early August for eventual use on the Artemis III lunar landing mission. ICPS-3 was also the last Delta hardware to depart Decatur and will support NASA’s…
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Artemis I review shows perfect ICPS performance, ULA looks to next Artemis launches
United Launch Alliance (ULA), the prime contractor for the Space Launch System’s (SLS’s) Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), has declared the stage’s overall performance on the Artemis I mission as “perfect.” The ICPS is the in-space upper stage of the SLS stack. On Artemis I, it was responsible for raising the initial orbital perigee and…
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NASA working through wet dress rehearsal, final major pre-flight test for moon rocket
With the arrival of SLS and Orion at Pad-B on March 18, engineers and technicians were busy making final preparations for Sunday’s critical last design verification test: the Wet Dress Rehearsal, or WDR. The test was scrubbed on April 3 before fueling due to an inability to provide positive pressure to the enclosed areas within…
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LVSA arrives at KSC, NASA EGS readies final pre-stacking preparations for Artemis 1
The Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter for NASA’s first Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 29 on the agency’s Pegasus barge at the end of a delivery trip from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. The cone-shaped interstage connector was moved into the Vehicle Assembly Building,…
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NASA will likely add a rendezvous test to the first piloted Orion space mission
Artist’s illustration of an Orion spacecraft with the upper stage of its Space Launch System rocket firing its RL10 engine. Credit: NASA Astronauts will likely perform a previously-unplanned demonstration of the Orion spacecraft’s deep space rendezvous capabilities in a high-altitude orbit around Earth on the crew capsule’s first piloted test flight, now scheduled for 2023.…
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Upper Stage RL10s arrive at Stennis for upcoming SLS launches
The Stennis Space Center is currently the focal point of the milestones toward the debut launch of the Space Launch System (SLS), with the Artemis-1 Core Stage currently undergoing Green Run testing on the B-2 Test Stand and the arrival of the first set of RL10 engines that will power the rocket’s Upper Stage from…
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Navigating the twists and turns steering SLS Development
This year’s decision to increase and extend use of the initial “Block 1” operating configuration of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) booster also impacts the space agency’s near-term plans for evolution of the launch vehicle’s design. The Congressional commitment to a second Mobile Launcher for SLS, along with the ability of SLS Block 1 to…
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SLS Upper Stage set to take up residence in the former home of ISS modules
The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) is now deep into its latest phase of processing, as it prepares to be housed in the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) – a facility once packed with modules waiting for their ride on Shuttles to make up the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The ICPS will be the…
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Evolving plans: No human rating for ICPS for SLS EM-1 mission
With SLS on track to make its debut launch in December 2017 from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, NASA continues its efforts to refine the vehicle’s test flight necessities ahead of EM-1 – particularly, the removal of the requirement to human rate the rocket’s Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage. SLS Block 1 and…