Friday, September 25, 2020

SLS Green Run expected in November

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - The Green Run hot fire test of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is expected in early November. The test of the rocket’s core stage and all of its integrated systems is a key step before the Artemis I lunar mission, scheduled for 2021. The test will be on the B-2 Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi. The hot fire is the final in a series of eight tests that ensure the stage’s systems are functioning and ready for operation. The test replicates the launch by loading the propellants and allowing them to flow throughout the system as the four RS-25 engines fire simultaneously to demonstrate that the engines, tanks, fuel lines, valves, pressurization system, and software can all perform together just as they will on launch day. Following the test, NASA will ship the core stage to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be assembled with the other parts of the Artemis I rocket and the Orion spacecraft. (Source: NASA/SSC, 09/23/20)