NASA will conduct a second critical engine test in February for its first Space Launch System megarocket after the first attempt ended earlier than planned this month.
“NASA plans to conduct a second green fire-fire test in the fourth week of February, with the core phase of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket launching the Artemis 1 mission to the moon,” NASA officials said Said in a statement Friday. (January 29).
Artemis 1 is the first unmanned test flight of the SLS rocket for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to bring astronauts back to the moon by 2024. The mission would be launched to the moon later this year. But the schedule depends on the SLS rocket passing its “green barrel” tests, a series of trials to prove the booster is ready to fly. When NASA first set fire to the four main RS-25 engines of the SLS core stage together on January 16, they shut down much earlier than planned.
That test, which was supposed to last 485 seconds or just over 8 minutes, stopped just 67 seconds after the engines were turned on. Because of this unexpected early end, NASA and main contractor Boeing decided to conduct a second fire test, NASA officials said.
Video: How NASA’s SLS Mega Rocket Engine Test Works
This second hot fire will provide additional data to certify the core phase of the rocket for the flight and should provide a minimal risk to the core phase, according to the same statement.
After the first hot fire test, the core device, including the RS-25 engines and the B-2 test standard, remains in ‘excellent condition’ according to the same statement, and no major repairs are needed to prepare for a second. hot fire test at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in St. Louis St. Louis, Mississippi. ‘
To prepare for the test, the team is analyzing the data of the first hot fire, but is drying and refurbishing the SLS engines, and repairing the system’s thermal protection system. do and the conservative control logic parameters that were responsible for the first test end according to NASA.
A second firefighting test lasting at least four minutes (approximately) will, according to the statement, provide enough data to show that the nuclear phase is flight-ready. This second hot fire would also allow the mission team to gather data on the performance of the rocket’s core phase over a longer period of time.
After this test, the team will take about a month to refine the nuclear phase and engines of the rocket before bringing the nuclear phase to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will work with other parts of the SLS megarocket will be merged.
In addition to the Artemis 1 SLS rocket tests, NASA has resumed testing individual RS-35 engines for future Artemis flights. On Thursday (January 28), the space agency successfully fired an RS-25 engine for its full duration of eight minutes as part of the tests.
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