Newly designed RS-25 test cut short

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - NASA conducted the first test of the newly redesigned RS-25 engine for future flights of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket Dec. 14, completing 209.5 seconds of a scheduled 500 second hot fire at the agency’s center in South Mississippi. The hot fire test was shut down early by a non-flight system used to monitor the engine. NASA and SLS lead engine contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne are analyzing data to review the monitoring system, evaluate engine performance, and identify the reason for the early test cutoff. Because the test was being done for redesigned engines in support of Artemis V and beyond, no impacts to RS-25 hardware for earlier missions is expected. The single-engine hot fire, known as a confidence test, was designed to confirm all is ready to proceed with a series of certification tests early next year on a full RS-25 certification engine. NASA and the company modified 16 of the engines remaining after the Space Shuttle Program for use on Artemis mission I through IV. The upcoming series of testing is for the RS-25 engines that will be used beginning with Artemis V. (Source: NASA/SSC, 12/15/22)