Tag: SLS
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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 rolls ML-1 out to Pad 39B for Summer of testing
Following verification and validation (V&V) testing in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Program has rolled Mobile Launcher-1 (ML-1) from High Bay 3 of the VAB out to Launch Pad 39B for a Summer of testing in preparation for the Artemis 1 launch.…
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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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SLS Core Stage MPS: more than just a fuel tank
One of the main elements of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage that makes it more than just a big fuel tank is the Main Propulsion System (MPS). All the equipment for the care and feeding of uprated Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME), adapted for SLS by Aerojet Rocketdyne as the RS-25, is repackaged…
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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 aims for quick start to 2024 Moon landing via newly named Artemis Program
A new amendment to the White House’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget request increases NASA’s federal budget by $1.6 Billion. The additional funding is allocated for multiple elements of the lunar mission architecture in order to pursue the goal of returning crew to the lunar surface by 2024, a program that has now been named Artemis,…
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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 puts SLS Europa Clipper option in the wind tunnel
NASA engineers at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, recently completed one set of wind tunnel tests in a series on the aerodynamics of the newest Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle configuration. Data was collected during several hundred supersonic test runs in the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel at Langley of a scale model of…
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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…