Green Run Update: SLS Team Finalizing Preparations for Second Hot Fire Test

The core stage Green Run test team completed a test readiness review today and is preparing for a second hot fire test with the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Feb. 25.

At the review, NASA, Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, and Aerojet Rocketdyne, the RS-25 engine prime contractor, gave the “go” for proceeding with the test at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. In the coming days, the team will conduct systems checkouts and final inspections to ensure the core stage, its four RS-25 engines and the Green Run software and stage controller are ready for the hot fire. Engineers plan to power up the core stage on Tuesday, Feb. 23 ahead of the hot fire. The first SLS core stage hot fire test on Jan. 16, the first time all four engines were ignited, provided the team with significant data that informed process and procedures for the upcoming test.

Green Run Checklist — Green Run is a series of eight tests, and the hot fire is the last and most intensive test. It is an integrated test of the entire core stage with its four RS-25 engines firing at the same time. As the core stage team has completed the checkouts and tests, they have learned and finetuned the operations for this complex new rocket stage. The knowledge gained through testing will help the team as they prepare the core stage for Space Launch System (SLS) launch of the Artemis I mission to the Moon.

The core stage is flight hardware that will be used for the Artemis I mission. For updates, please check this blog or the Green Run web site: https://www.nasa.gov/artemisprogram/greenrun