WASHINGTON: NASA they tested firing the engines for their Space Launch System (SLS) lunar rocket on Saturday but shut down earlier than planned, the space agency said.
The “hot-fire” test at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi was supposed to last just over eight minutes – the time the engines fired in flight – but shut down just over a minute into the burn.
“Teams are evaluating the data to determine what caused the early closure, and will decide a way forward,” NA said in a statement.
SLS rocket plans to launch the Artemis missions that will be launched US astronauts back to the Moon.
Despite being cut short, Nasa said the testing of the RS-25 engines had provided valuable information for the planned missions.
“Saturday’s test was an important step forward to ensure that the SLS rocket main stage is ready for the Artemis I mission, and to carry crew on future missions,” the Nasa administrator said. Jim Bridenstine.
“While the engines didn’t burn all the time, the team made it through the count, lit the engines, and obtained valuable data to inform our way forward.”
The cause of the early shutdown is not yet known but SLS program manager John Honeycutt told reporters they saw a shower in a thermal protective blanket on one of the engines and were analyzing it. the data.
“I think the team achieved a lot today, we learned a lot about the vehicle,” Honeycutt said.
NASA’s Artemis I mission is to test the SLS and the unmanned Orion spacecraft is expected to take place by the end of 2021.
The following Artemis II mission in 2023 will take astronauts around the Moon but it will not land. Artemis III will send astronauts, the first female among them, to the Moon in 2024.
In its configuration for Artemis I, the SLS will stand 322 feet (98 meters), taller than the Statue of Liberty, and is more powerful than the Saturn V rockets used in Apollo missions sent by the first astronauts to the Moon .
NASA’s ultimate goal is to establish the Artemis Base Camp on the Moon by the end of the decade, an ambitious plan that would require tens of billions of dollars of funding and the green light from an elected President Joe Biden and Transport.
Returning to the Moon is the first part of the Artemis program to establish a long-term colony and test technologies for a crew mission to Mars in the 2030s.