NASA Mega Moon Rocket Passes Key Test, Readies for Launch
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (NASA PR) — The largest rocket element NASA has ever built, the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, fired its four RS-25 engines for 8 minutes and 19 seconds Thursday at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The successful test, known as a hot fire, is a critical milestone ahead of the agency’s Artemis I mission, which will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a test flight around the Moon and back to Earth, paving the way for future Artemis missions with astronauts.
Engineers designed the eight-part Green Run test campaign to gradually bring the SLS core stage to life for the first time, culminating with the hot fire. The team will use data from the tests to validate the core stage design for flight.
“The SLS is the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built, and during today’s test the core stage of the rocket generated more than 1.6 million pounds of thrust within seven seconds. The SLS is an incredible feat of engineering and the only rocket capable of powering America’s next-generation missions that will place the first woman and the next man on the Moon,” said acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk. “Today’s successful hot fire test of the core stage for the SLS is an important milestone in NASA’s goal to return humans to the lunar surface – and beyond.”
NASA previously conducted a hot fire test of the SLS core stage Jan. 16. The four RS-25 engines fired together for the first time for about one minute before the test ended earlier than planned. Following data analysis, NASA determined a second, longer hot fire test would provide valuable data to help verify the core stage design for flight, while posing minimal risk to the Artemis I core stage.
During the second hot fire test, the stage fired the engines for a little more than eight minutes, just like it will during every Artemis launch to the Moon. The longer duration hot fire tested a variety of operational conditions, including moving the four engines in specific patterns to direct thrust and powering the engines up to 109% power, throttling down and back up, as they will during flight.
“This longer hot fire test provided the wealth of data we needed to ensure the SLS core stage can power every SLS rocket successfully,” said John Honeycutt, manager for the SLS Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “During this test, the team conducted new operations with the core stage for the first time, repeated some critical operations, and recorded test data that will help us verify the core stage is ready for the first and future SLS flights for NASA’s Artemis program.”
The two propellant tanks in the SLS core stage collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to help fuel the RS-25 engines at the bottom of the stage. The core stage has a complex network of flight software and avionics systems designed to help fly, track, and steer the rocket during launch and flight. Prior tests in the Green Run test series evaluated the integrated functionality and performance of the core stage’s avionics systems, propulsion systems, and hydraulic systems.
“Today is a great day for NASA, Stennis and this nation’s human space exploration program. This final test in the Green Run series represents a major milestone for this nation’s return to the Moon and eventual mission to Mars,” said Stennis Center Director Richard Gilbrech. “So many people across the agency and the nation contributed to this SLS core stage, but special recognition is due to the blended team of test operators, engineers, and support personnel for an exemplary effort in conducting the test today.”
Test teams at Stennis supervised a network of 114 tanker trucks and six propellant barges that provided liquid propellant through the B-2 Test Stand to the core stage. Test teams also delivered operational electrical power, supplied more than 330,000 gallons of water per minute to the stand’s flame deflector, and monitored structural interfaces of both the hardware and the stand.
Testing the SLS rocket’s core stage is a combined effort for NASA and its industry partners. Boeing is the prime contractor for the core stage and Aerojet Rocketdyne is the prime contractor for the RS-25 engines.
Next, the core stage for SLS will be refurbished, then shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There, the core stage will be assembled with the solid rocket boosters and other parts of the rocket and NASA’s Orion spacecraft on the mobile launcher inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy in preparation for Artemis I.
SLS, Orion, and the ground systems at Kennedy, along with the human landing system and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, are NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon on a single mission. The exploration of the Moon with NASA’s Artemis program includes preparations to send astronauts to Mars as part of America’s Moon to Mars exploration approach.
For more on NASA’s SLS, visit:
For more on NASA’s SLS core stage Green Run test series, visit:
34 responses to “NASA Mega Moon Rocket Passes Key Test, Readies for Launch”
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NASA is conducting an internal study of the timing and sequence of lunar missions with available resources, and with the guidance that SLS and Orion will be providing crew transportation to the Gateway. The backbone for NASA’s Moon to Mars plans are the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, ground systems at Kennedy Space Center, Gateway in lunar orbit and human landing system. We currently are also assessing various elements of our programs to find efficiencies and opportunities to reduce costs, and this exercise is ongoing. This will include conversations with our industry partners. Budget forecasts and internal agency reviews are common practice as they help us with long-term planning. The agency anticipates taking full advantage of the powerful SLS capabilities, and this effort will improve the current construct associated with executing the development, production and operations of the NASA’s Artemis missions.
NASA statement with Bill Nelson coming…so are big changes
Like what changes are you thinking?
Cancelling SpaceX’s contract to launch the initial Gateway elements? Or bigger changes?
first note on first full day with vaccine. No issues except a little soreness where the nurse jabbed me…AND I was very very tired last night. I had flown some before the shot, (cannot fly for four days after the shot) but had a good nights rest before …took the shot did some work around the house…but when I went out last night I was out. pretty much 10 hours of solid sleep.
no pain or anything but…
Bill Nelson? it all depends on what Joe Biden told h im when they had the conversation (and I am sure it was the two of them, they are the old Senate club)
The first inclination would be that well Administrator Nelson could go exactly where you are saying…and then there is the old adage “only Nixon could go to China”…and it could be that only Bill Nelson could change the space agency
Biden has surprised me a little. He is far far more liberal/progressive then was being advertised but most important he seems to be far more incistant on “getting things done”. showing progress getting thing working and yes modernizing things. Biden is embracing wide change among many of the aagencies and he also is challenging old dictums. like well the filibuster
so how would Nelson fit into that?
It could be he gives it a try (which seems to be under way) of getting SLS under control. finds out he cannot do it and is teh guy who moves the agency to “embrace” new things
I think I agree some with Tom…but would add this to his statements. we could either be in for four years of just nothing (this wont be new) or a roaring 20’s.
I hope the latter.
just to tell you where I am leaning. If I were the SLS people I would be thinking “I need to make this work”
Oh, SLS already works. We are going. The rest of you wailing and gnashing your teeth are pathetic.
It didn’t work in January. And it’s broken at least once more since then. If the Jan. thing had happened on a real mission, the crew on board would have had the ride of their lives getting away from a pair of roaring SRBs tied to a dead booster with most of its propellant left that just vapor-locked.
But we are going – no question. I just don’t think it’ll be any of us doing any “gnashing” when you see who’s doing it and how it’s being done.
Real mission. Riiight. You troll. Stupidly making anything up you possibly can. Only the shiny has any meaning to you, only your cult.
The Cult of Musk, like The Cult of Trump, needs to end.
The January hotfire was cut short because of slightly too conservative test commit criteria on the test configuration for green run.
The stage was operating well within actual flight parameters, NASA clarified if this had happened in flight it would have continued without any problem, since the hardware was working as expected, there wasn’t any actual failure on the hardware or software.
No LOM or LOC situation like many haters speculated.
But orange rocket bad so who cares right?
Thanks for the vaccine info. Which vaccine did you get?
I’m dubious about the “Nixon-to-China” thing anent Nelson and SLS
cancellation. On the other hand I’ll revel like a drunken troll and
drink Nelson’s health if he manages to pull that off – especially if he can do it sometime in the next two years. If he can do that all his past sins are forgiven.
Biden is an empty vessel. His flappers are where all that left progressivism comes from. As for “getting things done,” he hasn’t gotten all that much done with his first 100 days now well into their back half. His cabinet appointments make even Trump’s early bunch look like the Brain Trust by comparison. Even Hillary was a more impressive Sec’y. of State than that mook Biden appointed. She was a crook and a nincompoop but at least she could project a certain self-confidence in public. Biden’s nonentity is Mr. Milquetoast.
The Democrats have already trimmed the filibuster quite a bit and have lived to regret it. So I guess it’s just natural they’re lining up to hand the Republicans dry corncobs to jam up their behinds after 2022 under the mistaken impression they’re going to be able to convert the U.S. into a People’s Democratic Republic-type one-party state in the next two years.
I think we’re in for a Roaring 20s based on what NewSpace – especially SpaceX – are going to do. If Nelson can kill off SLS and even Orion, he’ll have gone a long way toward clearing the way for all the private-sector “roaring” I expect.
If I were the SLS people, I would be thinking, “I should update my resume.”
Pfizer. I think Biden is doing quite well as President. really far better then I expected and things are starting to move well
Well now we see what 40 years of Congress and a Shuttle flight gets us in an administrator. Bill Nelson’s administration is going to become a payload planning, developing, and purchasing operation. After his first 4 years, NASA’s going to need a dispatcher as one way or another NASA is going to become a flying operation again. I think in 6 to 8 years there’s going to be about 20 Americans in space at any one time.
More likely NASA will become irrelevant to any return to the Moon.
The transition to the point where civilians greatly outnumber NASA officials is going to take much longer than you propose. We’ll very likely be dead by then. Your fantasies of easy and fast frontier opening and development because it’s done by the private sector is just that a fantasy. It’s not happening in front of your face, and yet you still think it will.
It won’t be easy, but it is most likely to prove quite fast. And more than a little disorderly-looking too. Think Boca Chica transplanted to Shackleton Crater.
SpaceX, by itself, already employs more than half as many people as NASA does. All of NewSpace may already outnumber NASA. That will certainly be true a year from now.
There’s no way to be sure in advance, of course, but I’m reasonably hopeful both of us will still be around next year.
Starship is happening in front of our faces – at least if you bother to look. In fairly short order, we will see similar hives of ceaseless activity in places other than Earth.
Well let’s hope your vision comes true. I highly doubt it.
Bwahhahahh!!! What are you babbling about? Are you hallucinating?
Oh…I get it. It is that communal Borg mind of fanboys whispering into the void their deepest fantasies.
Hint: It isn’t us who are hallucinating.
And it’s a good thing you aren’t a Borg. Solitude is rough on Borgs.
Your cult is the real borg. Freaks.
That is certainly a non-trivial possibility. I suspect it won’t take too long, once Nelson has had a chance to redecorate his new office, to get a pretty good sense of just how likely that’s going to turn out to be. If Nelson proves to be what many fear rather than hope, the probability of NASA’s substantial irrelevance to a manned lunar return will approach unity.
see my note below
A lot more than that, I suspect. But most of the flying is likely to be done by non-NASA personnel. The NASAns will just slot in amongst them as SpaceX and others manage nearly all of it.
All indications are that Senator Nelson is anti-space commerce and pro-old space. Expect him to reinforce the SLS/Orion the center piece of a return to the Moon with a NASA designed lander replacing the current designs. Should set a NASA mission back a decade or so. Boeing, Lockheed and the rest of old space must be celebrating his pick as it will be a return to the old cost plus contract gravy train for NASA.
Other than the landers, is that much of a change from the past administrator? I know you don’t like to think of it so, but SpaceX was fostered for and advocated for mainly by Deomcrats. And they directed government to help pay for most of SpaceX’s systems. Your fantasy of looming victimization by the Democrats ls just that a fantasy. SLS and Orion are championed by the GOP. The GOP was absolutely anti SpaceX during the Obama administration, and Trump did not give a rats arse about space.
That will depend upon what Nelson actually does once in office. CLPS is about to get rolling in 2H, for example. If he messes with that it probably presages a lot of similar retrograde messing elsewhere.
SpaceX has had both fierce advocates and implacable foes on both sides of the aisle. Shelby and the AL delegation hated SpaceX. So did the CO delegation. But Musk had supporters too, such as former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. And, far more recently, HR 5666 was not written by Republicans.
You’re right about Trump only in the sense that the arse he gave about space was from a much larger animal than a rat. Space Force anyone? National Space Council? Coming back to KSC to watch Bob and Doug take off in the CD2 after a scrub the day before? Artemis, CLPS and all the stuff Pence and Bridenstine did?
Spaceforce? What have they done other than uniforms, office space, and a tagline? Ditto for Space Council. They did nothing above and beyond what was done without a Space Council. Like everything with Trump, it’s all about the whoop at the start and then nothing afterwards. No depth.
we will see. I dont think I agree with that right now
I’m reserving judgement too. That said, Matula is probably more likely to prove right than wrong. If not, I will be both surprised and happy.
The sizes of the notional Nelson-era changes in store are, to say the least, still unclear. I would judge him a decent success if he simply tamps down the recent tendency for certain NASA lifers to go hog wild in pursuit of their own retrograde enthusiasms and hobby-horses now that Mr. B. has left the building – like that near-septupling of charges to commercial players for use of ISS assets. I’ll dub Nelson a near-peer of Mr. B. if he can engineer the cancellation of SLS within the next two years.
In any case, the NASA document quoted, as is often the case, talks out of both sides of its mouth. There is lip service given to finding economies, but then there is a flat declaration that everything currently included is going to remain part of the program mission architecture. I daresay the NASA archives are chock full of documents that, read now, would appear even more ridiculous than this one so at least it will have plenty of company once it’s filed away.
The only way to reduce costs is what Bridenstine commented on…the more you build the less they cost. Splashing the space station to nowhere and directing that 4 billion a year to more cores and other hardware is the way to go.
There is another way to reduce costs and that is to design the rockets to be reusable. That is especially important for rockets that cost the Earth like SLS. But it works even better with rockets that don’t.
Unfortunately for SLS, it costs, all up, at least $2 billion a copy. So splashing ISS would only be good for two more SLSes per year. And you’d only get those it you at least tripled production capacity. That wouldn’t be easy.
Michoud, for example can supposedly crank out one SLS core stage per year with its current workforce. I have my doubts about the accuracy of that figure but let’s say, for the sake of argument, that it’s true. It has been speculated that turning Michoud into a three-shift operation could raise its output to two core stages per year. Increasing the staffing that much would likely gobble up half that post-splash ISS dividend leaving only the other half to get you a single additional SLS core stage per year.
Of course, production of all other ISS elements would need to be comparably increased – SRBs, ICPS and/or EUS (if ever) and Orion or some other comparable payload. That would increase yearly overhead in the rest of the non-Michoud SLS production infrastructure – mainly for up-staffing – so much that one would not even get an additional whole SLS per year.
Thus, the death of ISS is no panacea for SLS costs and availability. At best, one might manage to eke out an SLS launch every eight months rather than one per year. Personally, I don’t think that would be worth the loss of ISS.
Blah blah blah
Don’t you mean, “LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA – I can’t hear you!”
No…I mean your gang rambles on with the same endless B.S. Always and forever.
Yes, if only Obama hadn’t reversed the George Bush policy on the Space Station. Then NASA today wouldn’t be burdened by that sacred cow.
Oh, well. You get what you vote for, eh?
SLS delenda est
Trumpists voted for sedition, treason, and insurrection. It seems that makes many here traitors and I vote for prison for anyone supporting the fascist overthrow of our democracy. Lock them up!
Those damning the Space Agency flagship mission, the return of America to the Moon, are actually loyal to the flag of spacex, not the United States. They disgust me almost as much as Trumpists. Many give their fascist salute to Trump and then turn and do the same to the spacex logo and I have zero respect for any of you.
That is what your stupid Latin delenda garbage signifies, and somehow you think nobody gets your dirty two-faced scam. Transparent creeps.
The Cult of Musk, like The Cult of Trump, needs to end.