NASA successfully completed a critical static test of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on March 18, 2021, a major milestone for the agency before it returns to the moon.
NASA successfully test-fired the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the second Time on Thursday afternoon (March 18). Experts say this is an “important milestone” for mankind to return to the moon.
The powerful heavy rocket’s four RS-25 engines ignited at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, at about 4:37 p.m. EDT Thursday, lasting 8 minutes and 19 seconds. It lasted 8 minutes and 19 seconds.
Applause erupted in the control room as the test was a success. The core stage’s propellant tank can hold more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant, simulating nearly 1.6 million pounds of thrust.
“SLS is the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built, and in today’s test, the rocket’s core stage generated more than 1.6 million pounds of thrust in seven seconds.” NASA Acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk said in a news release Thursday.
“The Stennis Space Center is the country’s largest rocket engine test complex.
NASA said the 212-foot-tall core stage’s Green Run series of hot-fire tests marks a “significant milestone” in the human return to the moon program.
“SLS is an incredible engineering feat and the only rocket capable of powering the next generation of U.S. missions that will put the first woman and the next man on the moon.” Yurcik added, “Today’s successful hot-fire test of the SLS core stage is an important milestone in NASA’s goal to return humans to the lunar surface and beyond.”
NASA’s first hot-fire test of the SLS core stage took place Jan. 16, when the four engines fired for about a minute.
Next, engineers will analyze the data to determine if the rocket’s core stage can be prepared and sent to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be assembled with the rest of the 322-foot-tall SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft. together with other components of the 322-foot SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft, in preparation for the Artemis I launch program.
“Artemis I, which is tentatively scheduled to launch late this year (2021), will use the SLS rocket to send an unmanned Orion spacecraft around the moon and back to Earth.
Recent Comments