Nasa successfully ground-tests improved rocket booster and flight-certified spacecraft

18th September 2020

By: Rebecca Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) has successfully tested what could be described as the ‘Mark 2’ version of the booster rocket for its heavy Space Launch System (SLS). The SLS boosters are the most powerful booster rockets ever built for flight operations and their initial (‘Mark 1’) version has been flight certified and will be used to help launch the first three missions in the Artemis programme.

The recent test involved what Nasa called the Flight Support Booster-1 (FSB-1) and was conducted with SLS booster prime contractor Northrop Grumman at a test facility at Promontory in the US state of Utah. The FSB-1 was constructed using new materials and processes, including new propellant ingredients from new suppliers.

“This flight support booster test is the first motor firing Nasa and Northrop Grumman have completed since qualifying the booster design for the Space Launch System rocket,” highlighted Nasa Marshall Space Flight Centre (SFC) SLS Boosters Office manager Bruce Tiller. “Full-scale booster tests are rare, so Nasa tries to test multiple objectives at one time so we are highly confident that any changes we make to the boosters will still enable them to perform as expected on launch day.”

Each SLS booster rocket is composed of five segments. The FSB-1 test involved the firing of the full booster for the full length of time that it would burn in an actual launch, which was just over two minutes. During this test firing the booster produced more than 13.3-million newtons of thrust. Both Nasa and Northrop Grumman will analyse the data collected from the test to determine the FSB-1’s performance.

“Nasa is simultaneously making progress on assembling and manufacturing the solid rocket boosters for the first three Artemis missions and looking ahead toward missions beyond the initial Moon landing,” pointed out Nasa Marshall SFC SLS programme manager John Honeycutt. “[This] marks the first flight support booster test to confirm the rocket motor’s performance using potential new materials for Artemis IV and beyond.”

The SLS is composed of a core stage, to which two boosters are attached. It is the most powerful launch rocket ever developed by Nasa and is the only rocket that can launch an Orion spacecraft, its crew and supplies to the Moon in one go. The SLS, Orion, the Gateway station (which will orbit the Moon) and the ‘Human (Lunar) Landing System’ (the latter two are currently under development) are all part of Nasa’s Artemis programme.

“Landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon is just the beginning of Nasa’s Artemis programme,” stressed Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine. “The SLS flight support booster firing is a crucial part of sustaining missions to the Moon. Nasa’s goal is to take what we learn [from] living and working on the Moon and use it to send humans on the first missions to Mars.”

A few days earlier, Nasa had reported that the Orion spacecraft that will undertake the uncrewed Artemis I mission had passed both its System Acceptance Review and Design Certification Review. This meant that it was fit for its full planned mission profile – launch, flight to the vicinity of the Moon, return to Earth, landing (splashdown in the sea) and recovery. Every system on the spacecraft, every inspection report, all data from tests and verification support analyses had been evaluated in these reviews. The aim was to establish that every element of the spacecraft had achieved the requisite technical maturity. The reviews also certified all configuration management systems and production quality, as well as all reliability and safety analyses. They also certified the operations manuals.

The Orion can now be integrated with the SLS rocket. Artemis I will be an uncrewed integrated flight test mission which will test the entire Artemis system – the Orion spacecraft, the SLS rocket and the ground systems at the launch site, the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida. The mission, scheduled to last three weeks, will take place next year. During it, the Orion will not only fly to the Moon but sail thousands of kilometres beyond it.

The Artemis programme is named after the ancient Greek divinity. Artemis was the goddess of hunting, wild animals, wilderness and chastity. She was the protectress of women during childbirth and the patron of girls and young women. Very appropriately, she was also the sister of the god Apollo, after whom Nasa’s first crewed Moon programme was named. The ancient Romans called her Diana.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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