Tag: SLS
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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…
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SLS flight software and avionics in “run for record” testing
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Program is working through a formal test series for the software and computers that will fly the launch vehicle from the final countdown through Main Engine Cut Off (MECO). NASA developed the flight software that will run on computers in the Core Stage, working with other contractor-managed avionics boxes for…
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Examining NASA’s challenge to SLS as ‘Moon, soon’ becomes the latest bold goal
Vice President Mike Pence has instructed NASA to land Americans on the Moon within the next five years. That was the headline from the latest National Space Council meeting this week. These words will require action and an influx of additional funding to stand a chance of becoming a reality. However, an overriding abstract behind…
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Boeing reaches long awaited SLS engine section milestone as NASA makes EM-1 2020 schedule push
Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage prime contractor Boeing reached a long-awaited milestone this week with completion of standalone work on the engine section for the first vehicle. The most complex section of NASA’s new rocket stage is well behind more than one schedule revision, and because it is the critical path in the schedule…
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Administration proposes the end of EUS while Administrator considers full Exploration manifest rewrite
Alongside last week’s Trump Administration budget proposal to cancel future Space Launch System (SLS) upgrades, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced additional changes are being considered which would overhaul the early manifest of Exploration flights. The Administration’s new budget proposes defunding the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) and related projects beginning with Fiscal Year 2020 that starts…
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Despite political drama, NASA, Boeing press on with SLS Core Stage structural loads tests at Marshall
NASA and Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage prime contractor Boeing are in the middle of a busy period of testing structural test articles (STA) at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. One team is busy running test cases on the intertank STA in a large, indoor test facility while another is preparing…
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Despite political drama, NASA, Boeing press on with SLS Core Stage structural loads tests at Marshall
NASA and Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage prime contractor Boeing are in the middle of a busy period of testing structural test articles (STA) at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. One team is busy running test cases on the intertank STA in a large, indoor test facility while another is preparing…
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Boeing reaches milestone of firsts with forward join of NASA’s inaugural SLS Core Stage
The top half of the first NASA Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage now stands assembled in a vertical stacking cell at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans. Prime contractor Boeing bolted the three elements, the forward skirt, the liquid oxygen (LOX) tank, and the intertank together in January at Michoud. After connecting…
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NASA Stennis restarts RS-25 testing after December abort
Following a quick end to a hot-fire test two months ago, NASA’s test team at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi run RS-25 Development Engine 0525 in the A-1 test stand again on Wednesday. The last test on December 12 was manually cut off after only thirty seconds, coincident with a fire observed near the…
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Boeing starts final assembly for NASA’s first SLS Core Stage, work picks up for the second
Over the past month Boeing assembled the top half of the first Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage in a vertical stacking cell at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans. The intertank, liquid oxygen (LOX) tank, and forward skirt were bolted together as the major part of the so-called “forward join” of the…