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<\/p>\nNASA and prime contractor Boeing are working to finish assembly and checkout of the first Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage next month and send it on its way to a rocket test facility by Christmas. Aerojet Rocketdyne and Boeing attached the last of four RS-25 engines on the stage in early November at NASA\u2019s Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans.<\/p>\n
With the re-named Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) attached and almost all the other working equipment installed in Core Stage-1, Boeing was starting an estimated month\u2019s worth of integrated testing on Saturday. Simultaneously, NASA has started a series of official documentation audits and pre-shipment reviews at Michoud ahead of the completion of assembly.<\/p>\n
When completed, Boeing will turn over the stage to NASA for transportation by barge from MAF to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for several months of \u201cGreen Run\u201d acceptance testing of this first flight article in the B-2 Test Stand there. The Final Integrated Functional Testing (FIFT) will help verify the stage is ready to leave MAF for Stennis, which NASA and Boeing are hoping can happen by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
FIFT begins<\/p>\n
\u201cTesting, FIFT, will start Saturday,\u201d Craig Williams, Boeing\u2019s Core Stage Integrated Product Team Director, said on Thursday, November 14. \u201cWe\u2019ll power up the systems tunnel and start testing and then run that test campaign through completion, and there\u2019s fourteen total test cases that we have to run throughout the various systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe engines will complete what we call their hard mate tomorrow (November 15) first shift, enabling them to be ready for testing,\u201d he said. While Aerojet Rocketdyne technicians and engineers worked with their Boeing counterparts to mate the engines to the aft end of the stage in October and November, Boeing was working to finish outfitting the working components on the rest of the stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe feedlines are done, all the joints are completed and mated and passed leak test, so both the one-hundred eighty and zero-degree feedlines are done,\u201d Williams noted. \u201cThe press lines have one bellows and two press line segments left to install and six leak tests associated with those installs and then they\u2019ll be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Credit: NASA\/Eric Bordelon.<\/p>\n
(Photo Caption: Engine 2060 is lined up with the Main Propulsion System elements of the number four engine position in Core Stage-1 in early November. As in the Shuttle Orbiter boattail, the engines are clocked in different orientations for a better layout of all the equipment inside the engine section to service the engines.)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe systems tunnel is wrapping up to support testing tomorrow (November 15). We have a few straggling wire harnesses that we\u2019re finishing up \u2018WEETECH-ing\u2018 on, then from a testing position systems tunnel will be ready so from a structural outfitting position we\u2019re virtually done when the press lines will be done next week.\u201d<\/p>\n The liquid oxygen (LOX) feed system in the engine section is connected to the LOX tank at the top of the stage by two large feedlines, also called downcomers, that run in large part on opposite sides of the stage\u2019s exterior. The press lines route gaseous hydrogen and oxygen tapped off from the running RS-25 engines to repressurize both propellant tanks as they empty.<\/p>\n The pressurization gas runs up to the top of both propellant tanks to keep a sufficient amount of ullage pressure in them for structural integrity.<\/p>\n After FIFT, Williams said: \u201cWhat that will leave is external closeout work. Fairings, blankets, access doors, TPS (Thermal Protection System), cork, taping, that kind of work activity and we\u2019ll have a series of days where we\u2019ll have final outfitting that readies the vehicle for shipment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s some pressurization that we have to do to the tanks, we have to roll it out of 47\/48 (the final assembly area) and change it from a ninety-degree up orientation to a zero-degree up orientation, take off some roll rings from the transportation equipment and the like and get it ready.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re getting really, really close so we\u2019re pretty excited, holding to a December plan, and just getting ready to get this thing to Stennis,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n RS-25 engine installation complete<\/p>\n Installation of the fourth and final Shuttle main engine in the back of the stage on November 6 was a major visible milestone. \u201cWe started with engine two top-left, then we did engine one,\u201d Andrew Rostron, RS-25 engine installation field engineer with Aerojet Rocketdyne, said.<\/p>\n Credit: NASA\/Steven Seipel.<\/p>\n (Photo Caption: Engine 2056 is maneuvered into the number two engine position on October 19. Core Stage-1 is the first working stage article, which made this the first Core Stage engine install of the SLS program. During installation, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Boeing technicians have to make sure the large low-pressure ducts that ring the front of the engine clear the opening in the boattail.)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe did what\u2019s called \u2018soft install,\u2019 we transferred the weight of the engine from our GSE (ground support equipment) to the vehicle and we did all four engines in that manner as Boeing was working through the vehicle constraints to get the vehicle ready. So when I say a \u2018soft install,\u2019 we bring the engine behind the vehicle, we get it onto [the structure], [and] put on a number of bolts and hardware.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe use stiff arms to secure the weight of the engine, so that kind of temporarily holds the engines and properly keeps them in a safe configuration as a soft install.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe actually got engine three and four installed in a matter of three days, so we knocked those two out and now we\u2019re in the process of securing the engines,\u201d Rostron noted in the interview on November 11. \u201cThat\u2019s part of hard install.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all a flow process that\u2019s based on the access to the vehicle. We use a lot of modeling to figure out a proper way to remove our ground support equipment and properly secure the engines.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe use a lot of the folks that are my leads with that [experience] on Space Shuttle and their knowledge and we use a lot of model-based [analysis] to figure out the best way to get our folks inside the vehicle and get access and then we work through the flow process of properly securing the engine,\u201d Rostron added.<\/p>\n Credit: NASA.<\/p>\n (Photo Caption: Engine 2045 is moved into the number one engine position during installation activities on October 28 with two-hundred feet of stage extending into the background. The two blue roll rings are pinned to the front of the forward skirt and the structural ring in the engine section where the SLS Solid Rocket Boosters attach at their aft end. In the lower right, ground-side umbilical plates are attached to the vehicle\u2019s Tail Service Mast umbilicals. Two more ground-side plates are attached to the other stage umbilicals on the opposite side of the intertank and forward skirt.)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe are limited on our platforms, so what we try to do is we secure two engines at one time. So we focused on the lower ones first, engines three and four, then we moved up to engines one and two and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been working on.\u201d<\/p>\n FIFT overview<\/p>\n With all the working parts of the stage connected, the FIFT will verify that NASA and Boeing have an operating rocket stage that they can get ready at Stennis to load with propellants for the first time next year and then test-fire. In addition to propellant tanks and rocket engines and helium tanks and hydraulic pumps, the Core Stage houses the flight computers and dozens of avionics boxes to make everything work as programmed.<\/p>\n \u201cMuch of the FIFT is around sensor channelization, meaning you send a command and it does what it\u2019s supposed to do,\u201d Williams explained. \u201cThat\u2019s a vast majority of it and there\u2019s connectivity and talk between the top of the rocket down, from all the avionics boxes in the various volumes in the forward skirt and the intertank and they talk to the engine section components that they need to communicate with, elements like that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet me read you some highlights of what we do,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we\u2019ll have the power and application, health and status testing, so that\u2019s communication between all the systems. Then we\u2019ll have some specific avionics boxes where we\u2019ll do power, applications, health, and status.\u201d<\/p>\n Credit: NASA.<\/p>\n (Photo Caption: A schematic diagram of the different avionics boxes distributed throughout the SLS Block 1 vehicle, much of which is located in the Core Stage. The flight software runs on the three flight computers (FC) in the forward skirt of the Core Stage. During final integrated functional testing (FIFT), electrical ground support equipment (EGSE) will run the flight computers through a series of checkout test cases to verify the vehicle is connected and functioning properly.)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThen we have the channelization which is for all the OFI (operational flight instrumentation), EFI (electrical flight instrumentation), and DFI (development flight instrumentation). Then we\u2019ll have the FTS, so we\u2019ll do the flight termination system testing \u2014 of course nothing live, that all gets put in at Kennedy (Kennedy Space Center).\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll do some discrete engine shutoff testing [and] we\u2019ll do the engine leak test,\u201d Williams added. \u201cWe\u2019ll do all the electrical interface testing to the engines. We\u2019ll have both LOX and LH2 testing, so we\u2019ll test those subsystems out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll do some flight controller inhibit testing, we\u2019ve got battery health and power testing, we test the imagery system, the S-band\/RF system, and then, of course, we have what we call the vehicle functional system, that\u2019s kind of the whole vehicle talking to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Credit: NASA\/Jude Guidry.<\/p>\n (Photo Caption: The Core Stage-1 engine section and boattail hang from one of the heavy cranes in the Building 110 aisle while attached to a special breakover truss structure during breakover prep activities on September 12. Technicians are attaching the second crane to the +Z side of the engine section to enable the two cranes to rotate the element from vertical to horizontal.)<\/em><\/p>\n The FIFT is the last major checkout to complete before final work to close out the stage to ship. \u201cWe have somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty-two, twenty-three days to thirty days of test campaign to do,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe\u2019re obviously trying to work that back to the left.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot of risk mitigation testing with our systems tunnel in terms of individually wringing out and \u2018WEETECH-ing\u2019 those cable runs, so we know those connections are good and we expect to have higher first-time yields in this testing campaign than we had earlier on, so we have a bit more confidence and are seeing little bit less risk than we have in the past testing campaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n The systems tunnel houses all the power and data cabling to connect the stage\u2019s computer and other electrical equipment. It spans much of the length of the stage on the -Z side, allowing the flight computers at the top of the rocket to monitor the health of the vehicle in flight and before liftoff via inputs from avionics and instrumentation all over the stage, from the inertial navigation unit to liquid level sensors in the propellant tanks to command and telemetry processors, rate gyros, and data acquisition boxes.<\/p>\n It also provides the command path for the flight computers to control and manage propulsion, mechanical, and other vehicle systems and fly the launch vehicle to its intended delivery targets at Main Engine Cut-Off (MECO).<\/p>\n Credit: NASA\/Jude Guidry.<\/p>\n (Photo Caption: The engine section and boattail sit partially secured to a Rotational Assembly and Transportation Tool (RATT) after being rotated to horizontal on September 12. The two tripod jack stands shown being connected to the breakover fixture supported its multi-ton weight until it could be disconnected from the top of the engine section barrel.)<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n Although work to finish the gaseous oxygen and gaseous hydrogen (re)pressurization lines isn\u2019t quite complete, Boeing found a way to start the integrated functional testing in parallel. \u201cWe\u2019ve identified testing we could start in a sequence that didn\u2019t require press line completion to obviously enable us to continue concurrent assembly and testing operations,\u201d Williams explained.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the press lines will be the lagger of the external outfitting and like I said, there\u2019s not much work there but it\u2019ll go into next week.\u201d<\/p>\n With the FIFT underway this week, Boeing is still aiming to handover the stage to NASA next month for transportation to Stennis. \u201cWe\u2019re certainly shooting for December,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThe team goal would be to be home for Christmas, that\u2019s absolutely the goal, but we\u2019re certainly committed to December.\u201d<\/p>\n December 23 is a current forecast for the rollout of the stage at MAF when NASA would roll the stage on its transportation system about one mile from the industrial area at Michoud to the dock where the agency\u2019s Pegasus barge is waiting to carry the rocket to Stennis.<\/p>\n Pages: 1 2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA and prime contractor Boeing are working to finish assembly and checkout of the first Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage next month and send it on its way to a rocket test facility by Christmas. Aerojet Rocketdyne and Boeing attached the last of four RS-25 engines on the stage in early November at NASA\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1700,3718,7866,624],"class_list":["post-37817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-artemis-1","tag-em-1","tag-maf","tag-sls"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37817"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}See Also<\/h4>\n
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\nEngine 2056 was the first engine installed in the number two position on October 19, top-left in the current stage orientation. Engine 2045 was attached on October 29 in the top-right, number one position, followed by engine 2058 in the bottom-left\/number three position, and engine 2060 in the bottom-right\/number four position.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/MAF_20191028_P_Engine-1-Install-1large.jpg\")
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