Days after NASA signed two memoranda of international agreement related to missions for the Artemis lunar program, there is good news for the Space Launch System rocket test.
“Green running” tests on the new Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, scheduled to launch in November 2021, are moving forward again after problems with earlier ground equipment this month postponed the test, NASA announced Thursday (Dec. 17).
The rocket itself is fine, NASA said in a Dec. 11 media call, but temperature issues related to ground equipment to fuel the tank had halted the seventh of eight “wet uniform” forecast exercises “at NASA ‘s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
Related: NASA SLS megarocket test stopped with temperature issues
. @NASA_SLS Green Run tests are almost complete. After partial propellant loading earlier this month, engineers @NASA and @BoeingSpace have begun testing 7 of 8 in the Green Run series for the main stage of the rocket #Artemis I. https: // t .co / pjqaneDOOY pic.twitter.com/gtKXu9MR3V17 December 2020
On Thursday (December 17), however, contractor Boeing and NASA began restarting the test, a “wet clothing forecast” that involves loading full tanks of melting hydrogen and oxygen. at the SLS heart rate this week.
“Once the wet uniform forecast is complete, the team will spend a few days analyzing data to see if NASA is ready to go ahead with the final green run test: the fire when the four engines light up, mimicking the countdown and launch of the Artemis Mission 1, “NASA said Thursday on its Artemis website blog. The date of the hot fire test will be set once the pre-data analysis of wet uniforms is complete, NASA added.
The SLS currently being tested is expected to launch the Orion spacecraft on a moonless mission around the moon in late 2021, but the test will soon be needed to complete on the last shipment to Florida and picked up to meet that flight date. This mission, called Artemis 1, must be completed before the Artemis 2 lunar orbit mission flies for its expected 2023 date, and NASA will send humans to the moon at some point. Artemis 3 before their 2024 deadline.
“We are getting to a point where we have very little margin left on schedule compared to our commitment to our delivery date,” said John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at NASA’s Marshall Flight Center in Alabama, about the Artemis 1 SLS test during a Dec. 11 teleconference.
Flying SLS on time is important not only for NASA, but for its international partners. Earlier this week, both the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency announced that they had signed agreements with NASA regarding participation in the Artemis program. The CSA also announced that it will fly an astronaut – not yet named – on Artemis 2 in 2023, marking the first time anyone but an American will leave Earth’s orbit.
The pace of Artemis missions depends not only on the SLS test, but also on funding and other technology related to the lunar program. The lunar push of 2024 was officially set by the outgoing Donald Trump administration in 2019, accelerating the timeline in 2028.
Recently – amid an unexpected pandemic in 2019 now creating global economic pressure – the 2021 fiscal budget for NASA has not yet been finalized. New administration president Joe Biden will take office in January, possibly submitting his own views for NASA’s exploration plans. NASA must also test lunar equipment such as spaceuits before certifying them for flight.
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