NASA will conduct a second fire test for the rocket core phase of the Space Launch System as early as the fourth week of February. It will be part of the Green Run series of tests that assess the core phase and ensure that it is ready for the Artemis I mission, which will send an unmanned Orion spacecraft to the moon. The rocket’s first fiery test in mid-January, in which all four of its RS-25 engines fired simultaneously, was cut short due to a problem with the hydraulic system. What should have been an eight-minute burn lasted only 67 seconds – NASA wants the second time to last longer than being able to collect more data.
The agency also set an eight-minute goal for the second Test, because that’s how long it will take to send the rocket into space. However, according to NASA’s announcement, the Green Run team analyzed the data from the first test fire and determined that four minutes would be enough to provide significant data that could help verify whether the nuclear phase was really ready for flight. “By performing a second fire test, the team will be able to repeat the operations from the first fire test and get data on how the core phase and the engines work over a longer period, simulating more activities during the launch and rise of the rocket, “NASA wrote. .
.@NASA will continue with a second Green Run hot fire from the #Artemis I @NASA_SLS core stage at @NASAStennis in February. The second rocket test will build insights from the first test to confirm that the rocket phase is ready for future Artemis missions: https://t.co/530jZvMIne
– NASA’s Artemis Program (@NASAArtemis) 29 January 2021
To prepare for the second test, the Green Run team is analyzing the data from the first and drying and refurbishing the SLS engines. It will then take a month to refurbish the core stage and its engines after the second test before it can be sent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the Artemis I launch is expected to happen later this year. It remains to be seen whether the timeline will be met when the manned lunar landing of the Artemis program is unlikely to happen in 2024 as announced by the previous government.