NASA’s mega-size lunar rocket encountered an engine problem during a critical test on Saturday, and the error could further delay the agency’s attempt to send astronauts back to the moon.
The rocket, called Space Launch System (SLS), is designed to eventually stand 111 meters and transport astronauts to the moon sometime in the mid-late 2020s.
The system is a vital part of a larger program called Artemis, an approximately $ 30 billion effort to get boots back on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. NASA spent about $ 18 billion to develop the missile.
The SLS core stage – the main piece of the system and its structural backbone – was assembled and securely fastened Saturday at the Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi for a critical “hot fire” test.
For the first time, the missile was ready to fire its four powerful RS-25 engines simultaneously, just as it did at launch.
The nuclear stage is the world’s largest and most powerful rocket stage, according to NASA. It houses five main sections, including a 2 million liter (537,000 gallon) tank for liquid hydrogen, a 196,000 gallon (742,000 liter) tank for liquid oxygen, four RS-25 engines, electronic computers and other subsystems.
Boeing is the prime contractor for the stage, and Aerojet Rocketdyne is responsible for the RS-25 engines, which previously helped propel NASA’s fleet of space shuttles.
The fuel tanks were filled with 733,000 gallons of cryogenically cooled propellant on Saturday, and the engines came to life around 5:27 PM EST.
“It was like an earthquake,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters at a press conference after the test.
“It was a wonderful moment. And it just brought joy that after all this time we now have a rocket. The only rocket on the planet that can take people to the moon was firing all four RS-25 engines. at the same time.”
The engines would burn continuously for eight minutes. But about a minute after the start of the test, the motor controller sent a command to the core stage controller to turn them off.
Crews at Stennis Space Center lift the nuclear stage into place on January 22 (NASA)
The controllers had seen a flash next to the thermal protection blanket covering engine four. Shortly after, that engine registered an MCF, or “major component failure.” It is not yet clear what happened.
“At the time they called, we still had four good engines at 109 percent,” John Honeycutt, the SLS program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, said at the press conference.
The whole thing was captured on NASA’s live broadcast:
“The amount of progress we’ve made here today is remarkable. And no, this is not a failure. This is a test. And we tested today in a meaningful way, where we’ll learn and we’re going to make adjustments and we fly to the moon, ”Bridenstine said.
The SLS team will spend the next few days studying the data from the test, reviewing the core stage and engines to find out what happened and how to proceed.
NASA may need to rerun the hot fire test
Saturday’s hot fire would be the eighth and final step in NASA’s ‘Green Run,’ a program designed to thoroughly test every part of the core stage ahead of SLS’s initial launch, dubbed Artemis 1 – an unmanned test flight currently underway. scheduled for November 2021..
But that timeline may be unrealistic now. If the hot fire went well, NASA planned to ship the rocket to Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida in February. There, workers would stack all the segments of the two boosters needed to send Artemis 1 around the moon.
It is unclear how long it will take for NASA to correct the engine error and now bring the core stage to Florida.
“It depends on what the anomaly was and how difficult it will be to fix it. And we still have a lot to learn to figure that out,” Bridenstine said.
“It could very well be something that is easy to fix and we can be sure to get to the Cape and stay on track. It is also true that we can find a challenge that will take more time.”
The agency may need to rerun the hot fire test. The SLS team wanted to get at least 250 seconds off the engines to have a lot of confidence in the vehicle. Saturday’s test lasted just over 60 seconds.
It would take at least four or five days to prepare the Stennis Space Center facilities for a new test. If NASA has to exchange the current engines for new ones, employees can do so on site at the Stennis Space Center. Honeycutt estimated it would take about seven to 10 days to do that.
“This is why we test,” said Bridenstine. “Before we put American astronauts on American rockets, we need to get it perfect.”
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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