NASA on Thursday tested the core phase of its massive Space Launch System rocket and rattled its test facilities in southern Mississippi for a long time that goes beyond what engineers needed for a clean demonstration. The team made its second attempt for the fiery run after an initial shooting in January was cut short. In anticipation of a review of the test data, engineers plan to send the rocket stage to Florida before its first test flight to the moon under NASA’s Artemis program.
The four-engine 212-foot-long rocket scene, housed in a series test facility at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, set on fire together for more than eight minutes to test the circumstances of an actual uplift. NASA and its main contractor, Boeing, had to achieve at least four minutes of continuous test time to call it a success. NASA spokeswoman Leigh D’Angelo said in eight minutes ‘they had to get what they needed’.
GIF by Nick Statt / The Verge
“They clearly had the full duration they were looking for, which is very good news,” NASA Green Run campaign manager Bill Wrobel said just after the engines stopped. “There is a lot of data that needs to be analyzed.”
The engine drive was an important last step in the so-called Green Run test campaign of the SLS program. If the data is examined, it will go by boat to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for final meeting. The first launch of the rocket, Artemis I, will send an unmanned astronaut capsule from Orion on an orbit around the Moon early next year.
SLS is the center of NASA for its Artemis program, an ambitious campaign to bring people back to the moon and later to Mars. As it is the strongest rocket since the Saturn V of the Apollo program, the evolution of decades has been tainted by billions of cost overruns and delays. According to the NASA inspector general, it will fly by for the first time for the first time that the cost amounts to almost $ 20 billion.
Boeing, the main contractor building the nuclear phase, said the test “shows successful nuclear phase operation and will be used to confirm the stage for flight.”
“The exploration of deep spaces has taken an important step forward today,” the statement added.