According to SpaceNews’ Jeff Froust, the rocket that will bring Americans back to the moon in 2024 has recently suffered another setback as a major test of its engines failed after just 67 seconds.
Thursday offers a new dry run an opportunity for redemption.
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The Space Launch System (SLS) should be to NASA today what the Saturn V was to the space agency in the 1960s and 1970s: the workhorse. NASA used the Saturn V to launch 12 of the 15 Apollo missions, including all those that took astronauts to the moon. Likewise, the SLS will be the launch vehicle for the Artemis program, which aims to return Americans to the moon for the first time since the Apollo missions nearly 50 years ago.
The test, a “hot fire” of the core phase of the SLS, was conducted by NASA in mid-January and was expected to take about eight minutes in total. The rocket’s four engines shut off automatically after just one.
The interruption came during a rehearsal of each engine’s ability to turn when a power source failed due to low hydraulic pressure. Alarmingly, this hydraulic system had already been checked to some extent in a previous test.
NASA has since described the failure condition that triggered the end of the test as “ deliberately conservative, ” saying that a real launch would have simply transferred power from the failing unit and continued – but it remains unclear whether the failure of the power supply would still be. acceptable in that situation. It could (for example) be a sign of other problems.
The timely development of the SLS is critical to the Artemis program. With its first mission scheduled to launch only this fall, NASA was initially unsure whether it needed to conduct another test and risked delays.
The SLS has also been a source of controversy since it began development in 2011, and is considered a symbol of cost overruns and delays around NASA space exploration projects.
Asa Stahl is an astrophysics PhD student at Rice University and the award-winning author of the children’s pop science book “The Big Bang Book.” His research focuses on discovering planets around other stars to answer some of our biggest questions, such as “How special is Earth?” and “How did we get here?” His recent book has been recognized as an Edward Jack Keats Award Honoree, an NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Book, and a Sakura Medal Finalist.