Boeing is getting ready to conduct the next phase of the Green Run test campaign for NASA\u2019s first Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage. The second and third test cases were recently completed in the B-2 Test Stand at the NASA\u2019s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.<\/p>\n
Test case four begins this week and test case five after that will checkout the new stage\u2019s Main Propulsion System hardware elements, performing fluid system leak checks and functional testing of the hydraulic thrust vector control (TVC) systems and four RS-25 engines.<\/p>\n
Test case three complete<\/p>\n
The NASA and contractor teams running the Green Run campaign continue expanding integrated system checkouts, bringing up all previously verified equipment in the next phase of tests that will validate the stage\u2019s propulsion and mechanical systems.<\/p>\n
Health checks of computer systems on the new rocket stage and in the refurbished test complex were first run in late June, followed by a verification of safing routines last week. The computer health tests and ground system command and control safety verifications were the second phase of the Green Run campaign that began with arrival of the first Core Stage at the B Test Complex in January.<\/p>\n
A total of eight test cases will be performed over the course of this year, iteratively building up to the seventh and eighth tests: the SLS Program\u2019s first propellant loading of a Core Stage followed by an inaugural eight-minute, flight-duration firing while held down in the stand.<\/p>\n