Tag: Space Launch System

  • Shuttle-era rocket engine primed for test firing

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    NASA plans to fire up a space shuttle-era rocket engine in Mississippi on Thursday for nearly nine minutes to validate upgrades to the powerplant for the Space Launch System, a new mega-rocket under development to boost astronauts on missions to deep space. The test set to begin at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) will last…

  • Rocket engine fires up in latest test for behemoth booster

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    NASA test-fired an RS-25 development engine Thursday at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now A hydrogen-fueled rocket engine ignited with a bone-rattling sonic wave Thursday at NASA’s test facility in Southern Mississippi, throttling up to more than a half-million pounds of thrust to verify upgrades to the space shuttle’s main engines…

  • Orion service module still seen as schedule driver

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    Artist’s concept of the Orion spacecraft with the European service module’s distinctive X-wing solar panels. Credit: NASA The pace of the European Space Agency’s development of a power and propulsion module for NASA’s Orion crew capsule will likely determine when an unpiloted test flight of the spaceship and its heavy-lift rocket will take off, NASA…

  • New name for Space Launch System gets backing of lawmakers

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    Artist’s concept of NASA’s Space Launch System. Credit: NASA/MSFC A push to give NASA’s Space Launch System a new name is garnering support from lawmakers, who have written into legislation provisions that would order NASA to rename the heavy-lift rocket through a competition among schoolchildren. If passed into law, the bill would set policy for…

  • NASA adding to list of CubeSats flying on first SLS mission

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    Artist’s concept of the Lunar Flashlight CubeSat at the moon. Credit: NASA With room for 11 small shoebox-sized CubeSats on the first test flight of NASA’s behemoth Space Launch System, agency officials have turned to scientists, industry and students to fill the slots in time for launch in 2018. NASA has selected three CubeSats developed…

  • NASA kicks off SLS engine testing in Mississippi

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    The RS-25 engine fires up for a 500-second test Jan. 9 at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Credit: NASA A powerful space shuttle-era rocket engine ignited for more than eight minutes on a test stand in Mississippi last week, kicking off hotfire testing for NASA’s Space Launch System mega-rocket after contamination…