Tag: SLS
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Solid Rocket Boosters arrive at Kennedy for Artemis 1 and OmegA
For the first time in ten years, Solid Rocket Booster segments have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for flight operations. Successfully completing the cross-country train trip were all 10 propellant segments for the Artemis 1 mission of the SLS rocket as well as inert Castor-series segments for the company’s upcoming OmegA rocket,…
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Stennis returning as battle to protect SLS maiden launch in 2021 restarts
Hands-on operations with the Space Launch System (SLS) resumed this week, following a lengthy standdown due to the restrictions relating to COVID-19. This included a return to Green Run preparations at the Stennis Space Center, with “limited crews” preparing the Artemis-1 core stage on the B-2 test stand for what will be one of the…
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Aerojet Rocketdyne expands operations to deliver four SLS engines a year
NASA is extending its RS-25 engine production contract with Aerojet Rocketdyne through the rest of the decade, a move that guarantees a steady supply of liquid-fueled engines for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s core stage. This consolidates Aerojet Rocketdyne’s RS-25 engine contracts, ensuring they continue to prepare the 16 RS-25 flight engines inherited from…
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Aerojet Rocketdyne expands operations to deliver four SLS engines a year
NASA is extending its RS-25 engine production contract with Aerojet Rocketdyne through the rest of the decade, a move that guarantees a steady supply of liquid-fueled engines for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s core stage. This consolidates Aerojet Rocketdyne’s RS-25 engine contracts, ensuring they continue to prepare the 16 RS-25 flight engines inherited from…
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NASA Selects Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX Human Landers for Artemis
NASA has selected three companies to develop Human Landing Systems (HLS) to support future crewed moon landings. Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX will develop their designs over a ten month period, before a down-selection to one or two vehicles that will fly uncrewed demonstration missions. The Artemis III mission will then utilize one of these…
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From Shuttle Sadness to Dragon Delight – USA prepares to regain domestic crew launch capability
The gap in US domestic crew launch capability is coming to an end as soon as next month, concluding a convoluted and painful path that ultimately began when Columbia was lost during STS-107. The last time American astronauts launched from US soil was in 2011 with Shuttle Atlantis during STS-135. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is set…
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Prior to workplace closures, SLS was making good progress ahead of opening missions
Prior to the shut down of work last month in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Program was working towards milestones for its first two launches. At Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, Core Stage prime contractor Boeing was getting ready to do powered checkouts of the first flight…
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SLS at Home: Program and Contractors adjusting to telework
With key worksites closed and activity suspended to protect their workforce from the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Program is working on what it can from home. The program’s headquarters at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, are closed in response to the uncontained virus outbreak. The…
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NASA decides against using Gateway for 2024 lunar landing
As NASA organizes a push to return a human presence to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo era, the agency has made critical changes to the plan that would enable a crewed lunar landing to occur no later than 2024. One of these modifications involved the Lunar Gateway, a modular space station…
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OIG leans on NASA to avoid the mistakes of ML-1 with SLS’s second Mobile Launcher
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has published an extensive report on NASA’s use of two Mobile Launchers for its Space Launch System (SLS). With the completed Mobile Launcher -1 (ML-1) way over cost and schedule, the OIG has called on NASA to implement several recommendations for the construction of the second Mobile Launcher (ML-2)…