Technicians with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems rehearse booster stacking operations inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Sept.14, in preparation for the Artemis I launch. The team is using full-scale replicas of booster segments, referred to as pathfinders, for the practice exercise in one of the tallest sections, or high bays, of the VAB built for stacking rockets. As part of the rehearsal, a pathfinder for an aft segment, the very bottom of the stack, was prepared in High Bay 4. Then, a team of crane operators moved the segment into High Bay 3, where it was placed on the mobile launcher. Careful measurements were taken before the team added a center segment to the stack.
The actual Space Launch System (SLS) booster segments will be stacked on the mobile launcher later this year, following completion of Green Run testing of the rocket’s core stage – a series of eight tests taking place at the agency’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
Inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians have extended one of the Artemis I solar array wings on Sept. 10, 2020. Prior to installation on the Orion spacecraft, the team performed an inspection to confirm proper extension and to ensure all of the mechanisms functioned as expected. The pictured solar array is one of four panels that will generate 11 kilowatts of power and span about 63 feet. The array is a component of Orion’s service module, which is provided by the European Space Agency and built by Airbus Defence and Space to supply Orion’s power, propulsion, air and water.
The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will test the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024.
Engineers have completed the fifth of eight Green Run tests on the core stage of NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, continuing progress toward a hot fire test this fall. Operators evaluated the stage’s thrust vector control system on the historic B-2 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., on Sept. 13. The test provided critical verification of the control system and its related hydraulics as operators moved the stage’s four RS-25 engines as they must move during flight to steer the rocket and maintain a proper trajectory. The stage now is set for two more tests – a simulated countdown demonstration and wet dress rehearsal – directly leading to the hot fire of all four RS-25 engines, as during an actual flight.
In the countdown demonstration, engineers will simulate the launch countdown and procedures to validate the established timeline and sequence of events. In the wet dress rehearsal, engineers will conduct another countdown exercise and actually load, control and drain more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants to ensure all is set for the final test of the Green Run series. The concluding test will activate all stage systems and fire the four RS-25 engines to generate the same combined 1.6 million pounds of thrust that will help launch the SLS rocket when it flies on the Artemis I mission.
Teams from NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and prime contractor Northrop Grumman successfully completed the Flight Support Booster-1 (FSB-1) ground test at Northrop Grumman’s test facility in Promontory, Utah. Watch a replay of the test on NASA Television or NASA’s YouTube channel. Learn more about the test at https://www.nasa.gov/media/flight-support-booster-test.html
Final systems checks for NASA’s Space Launch Systems (SLS) Flight Support Booster-1 (FSB-1) test are complete and the test conductor has given the ground test a “go.” The test fire is scheduled to begin at 1:05 MDT, 3:05 p.m. EDT. Watch the FSB-1 test live on NASA Television or the agency’s website.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Flight Support Booster-1 (FSB-1) test is in a scheduled hold of the countdown. The hold allows time for remaining personnel to evacuate the test area to their designated locations. The test team will also check motor temperatures and confirm data acquisition systems are ready to record. The test fire is scheduled for 1:05 MDT 3:05 p.m. EDT.
Live coverage of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Flight Support Booster-1 (FSB-1) ground test has begun on NASA Television and the agency’s website. The test fire is scheduled to begin at 3:05 EDT. Systems checks are underway for the full-scale, five-segment solid rocket booster ground test at Northrop Grumman’s test facility on Promontory, Utah. This is the first in a series of tests that are examining motor performance for potential new materials and processes that may be incorporated in the booster after the Artemis III lunar mission.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) will conduct a test of Flight Support Booster-1 (FSB-1) Sept. 2, 2020 at Northrop Grumman’s test facility in Promontory, Utah. Northrop Grumman manufactures the two five-segment solid rocket boosters that will provide more than 75 percent of the vehicle’s thrust for the first two minutes of ascent. Live coverage of the test will begin at 2:45 p.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
FSB-1 is a full-scale, five-segment solid rocket booster ground test that supports flights of NASA’s Space Launch System. This is the same model booster that will power the SLS rocket and Orion capsule on the Artemis I mission. The test is scheduled for 1:05 MDT, 3:05 p.m. EDT and has a planned duration of a little over 2 minutes, the same amount of time that the boosters power the rocket during liftoff and flight. The objective of the test is to confirm motor performance and manufacturing quality for potential new materials and processes that will be used in boosters supporting future Artemis missions.
More details about the FSB-1 test and SLS solid rocket boosters:
NASA’s Orion Program has completed the System Acceptance Review and Design Certification Review to certify the Artemis I spacecraft is fit for flight, ready to venture from Earth to the lunar vicinity, and return home for landing and recovery.
The review examined every spacecraft system, all test data, inspection reports, and analyses that support verification, to ensure every aspect of the spacecraft has the right technical maturity.
In effect, the review gives the stamp of approval to the entire spacecraft development effort and is the final formal milestone to pass before integration with the Space Launch System rocket.
In addition to spacecraft design, the review certified all reliability and safety analyses, production quality and configuration management systems, and operations manuals.
Orion, the Space Launch System, and Exploration Ground Systems programs are foundational elements of the Artemis program, beginning with Artemis I, the first integrated flight test of Orion and SLS next year. Artemis II will follow as the first human mission, taking astronauts farther into space than ever before.
The attitude control motor for the Artemis II mission arrives in the Launch Abort System Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 28, 2020. Photo credit NASA/Ben Smegelsky
The last of three motors required to assemble the Launch Abort System for NASA’s Artemis II mission–the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft–arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on August 28. The attitude control motor (ACM) was delivered by truck from Northrop Grumman’s manufacturing facility in Maryland, to the Launch Abort System Facility (LASF) at Kennedy.
During launch of Orion atop the agency’s Space Launch System rocket, the LAS motors work together to separate the spacecraft from the rocket in the unlikely event of an emergency during launch. The LAS includes three motors – the launch abort motor, the jettison motor, and the attitude control motor—that once activated, will steer the spacecraft carrying the astronauts to safety. The launch abort and attitude control motors were manufactured by Northrop Grumman; the jettison motor was manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne.
The ACM operates to keep Orion’s crew module on a controlled flight path in the event it needs to jettison and steer away from the rocket. It then reorients the crew module for parachute deployment and landing. The motor consists of a solid propellant gas generator, with eight proportional valves equally spaced around the outside of the 32-inch diameter motor. Together, the valves can exert up to 7,000 pounds of steering force to the vehicle in any direction upon command from the crew module.
Inside the LASF, the motor will be placed on a special trailer for future integration with the rest of the LAS elements. It will remain in the LASF midbay, where the Artemis I LAS is being integrated with its designated crew and service module for its mission next year.
Artemis II is the first crewed flight in a series of increasingly complex missions to the Moon that will lay the foundation for exploration of Mars and beyond. Artemis II will confirm all of the Orion spacecraft’s systems operate as designed in the actual environment of deep space with astronauts aboard. As part of the Artemis program, NASA will send the first woman and next man to the Moon in 2024.
