See NASA’s Artemis moon rocket roar to life in dramatic fire test

The second time was a charm. NASA on Thursday completed a critical fire test of the core phase of the Space Launch System, a follow-up to a previous test that did not go according to plan. The event lasted about eight minutes and created a massive undulating cloud that stretched into a nearby forest at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

NASA wants to guide humans back to the moon. The agency aims for an Artemis I-around-the-moon mission later in 2021, but it first had to place its lunar rocket here on earth.

NASA refers to the nuclear phase as “the backbone of the SLS rocket.” Hot fires are dramatic matters intended to simulate the severity of launch conditions. Today’s event would be the last part of the “Green Run” series of tests designed to examine the core phase of SLS before it starts from Earth.

Here is NASA’s description of what happened during the SLS arson: “On test day, engineers will turn on all the nuclear stage systems, load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic or supercooled fuel into the tanks and fire the four rockets from the rocket. -25 engines at the same time to simulate the operation of the stage during the launch, which generates 1.6 million pounds of thrust. ‘

The first attempt at the hot fire in mid-January did not go smoothly, when the rocket switches off just over a minute after an eight-minute test.

Late in late January, NASA said it planned to launch a second fire. The do-over test was originally aimed at the end of February, but slowed down after engineers discovered a valve – part of a system that supplies liquid oxygen to an engine – was not working properly. The SLS team solved the problem and repaired the valve.

“After analyzing the initial data, the team determined that the shutdown after the engines were shot 67.2 seconds on January 16 was caused by test parameters that were deliberately conservative to ensure the safety of the core phase during the test,” NASA said in a statement. statement 19. January. The agency will strive to make it eight minutes during the do-over.

NASA reported that the core phase, the engines and the test standard were in an ‘excellent condition’. The second test seems to work as expected and applause asked of the NASA team monitoring the exercise.

While Artemis I does not have humans on board, SLS missions will later be responsible for guiding astronauts to space safely. “All the SLS rockets use the same nuclear stage design,” NASA said. “Thus, a second fiery Green Run will not only reduce the risk for Artemis I, but also for all future SLS missions.”

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