Engineers with NASA\u2019s Space Launch System (SLS) program and prime Core Stage contractor Boeing continue to review terabytes of data from the now-complete, once-in-a-generation Green Run design verification test campaign. A series of eight test cases were completed, culminating in a 500-second long, full-duration static firing of the stage in the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis.<\/p>\n
The Core Stage was the major new piece developed for the agency\u2019s SLS launch vehicle, and both NASA and Boeing are pleased with results seen so far. Initial analysis and reviews of the test-firing data show that actual Main Propulsion System (MPS) performance was close to most predictions by analytical models and the system demonstrated operating margin during stressing tests conducted during the static fire.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
MPS performed well with fine-tuning<\/p>\n
The big orange rocket looks like the Space Shuttle\u2019s less enormous orange External Tank, but among other Shuttle Orbiter components contained in the SLS Core Stage is all the Main Propulsion System (MPS) equipment for the care and feeding of four uprated Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME). Now called RS-25, Aerojet Rocketdyne had already adapted the engines for SLS; the Green Run campaign that lasted from January 2020 to April 2021 used four veteran flight SSMEs as special test equipment to evaluate the design of the rookie Core Stage.<\/p>\n
The eight test cases in the Green Run series culminated in a second Hot-Fire test on March 18 with Core Stage-1, the Artemis 1 flight vehicle, firing for a full-duration 500 seconds. The redo of the post-engine start aborted Hot-Fire test on January 16 completed all objectives for the test, picking up the balance that were missed or incomplete from January.<\/p>\n
After fine-tuning a few parameters based on observations and analysis of previous tests, the different elements of the MPS, from the propellant and feed systems to hydraulics\/thrust vector control (TVC), pneumatics, and pressurization, tracked closely to updated analytical models in March 2021. \u201cOverall our pre-test predictions proved to be very accurate,\u201d Jonathan Looser, NASA SLS Core Stage Propulsion Lead, said in an interview with NASASpaceflight.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we walked through the data \u2018post-flight,\u2019 we [could] see that our predictions in terms of vehicle loading, feed system performance, pressurization and pneumatics, TVC system, by and large were very close to our pre-test predictions if not right down the middle of those.\u201d<\/p>\n
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