NASA has been working on the Space Launch System (SLS) launch rocket since 2011. When complete, the SLS will become the most powerful rocket in the world, capable of long-distance space flights. Within a few years, it would also allow the Americans to return to the moon as part of the Artemis program, and later also on a manned flight to Mars.
A major test of SLS engines
But the construction of a massive space rocket from NASA is still lagging and consumes billions more Dollars. Some time ago, the US Space Agency believed it would be able to conduct its first test flight in 2020.
This, of course, did not work, but now NASA can boast of a lot of progress in work on the rocket. On Thursday, the final test of the engine needed to launch the rocket into space was successfully completed.
Four RS-25 engines were tested simultaneously for 8 minutes and 19 seconds at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Agency employees speak of a milestone here, because Thursday’s test – although it did not involve separating the missile from the ground – actually reflected the conditions in which the engines would operate during real takeoff.
The SLS is the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA, and in today’s test, the main stage of the missile generated more than 1.6 million pounds of thrust in seven seconds. The SLS is an astonishing engineering feat and the only missile capable of launching next-generation American missions that will transport the first female and the next man to the moon. Today’s successful SLS Home Stage hot test is an important milestone in NASA’s goal of returning humans to the surface of the Moon and beyond.
– Steve Jurczyk commented Acting President of NASA.
The agency’s engineers assured that a certain success was completely hassle-free Function Motors for more than 8 minutes and the ability to control them while running. Likewise, the engines will run for every future manned flight to the moon. Thus, the first stage of the SLS is ready for its first test flight into space.
Interestingly, and to make the test possible, two missile tanks with a total capacity of 2.77 million liters were filled with 114 tanks and six barges with liquid hydrogen and oxygen. The test also required 1.25 million liters of water per minute to run.
Once NASA is satisfied that all stages of the engine’s operation have gone according to plan, the rocket will be transported to the Kennedy Space Flight Center in Florida. There it will be combined into two smaller side members and cooked on first takeoff. NASA has yet to reveal when this can be expected.
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