[ad_1]
NASA has begun mounting the first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on a launch pad ahead of its maiden flight next year.
The SLS is the giant rocket that will send US astronauts back to the moon this decade, with the first manned landing scheduled for 2024.
Engineers in Florida began stacking the segments that make up the vehicle’s two solid rocket thrusters.
The rocket is expected to make its first flight in November 2021.
The SLS consists of a giant 65 m (212 ft) long central stage with four motors flanked by dual solid fuel boosters.
Together, these produce a whopping 8.8 million pounds of thrust that can carry astronauts into orbit; the rocket subsequently launches them towards the moon.
Teams from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida lowered the first of 10 booster segments on a facility known as a mobile launcher on November 21. The process takes place inside Kennedy’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).
The boosters will burn six tons of aluminum-based solid propellant every second when the SLS is launched. They provide 75% of the vehicle’s thrust on takeoff.
The mobile launcher they are stacked on is a 115 m (380 ft) tall structure used to process and assemble the SLS before moving it onto the launch pad.
It’s a huge symbolic step, not just for the SLS – which has been in development for a decade – but also for NASA’s plan to send the next man and first woman to the lunar surface by 2024, known as Artemis.
“Stacking the first piece of the SLS rocket on the mobile launcher marks an important milestone for the Artemis program,” said Andrew Shroble, a manager of the Jacobs engineering group who is working on the rocket for NASA.
“This shows that the mission is really taking shape and will soon be heading for the launch pad.”
The other major segment of the SLS – its orange foam-covered central stadium – is currently undergoing a test program called Green Run at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
The last two Green Run tests – which consist of loading the huge stage with propellant and, two weeks later, turning on its four engines to simulate a launch and ascent – are scheduled for the next few weeks.
Once fully assembled, the SLS rocket will be taller than the Statue of Liberty and will have approximately 15% more maximum takeoff thrust than the Saturn V rocket used to launch Apollo missions to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s.
The recall segments assembled in Florida will launch NASA’s next-generation astronaut vehicle, Orion, on a loop around the moon in November next year.
Orion will not carry any crew on that mission, known as Artemis-1. It will be used to verify the vehicle’s performance before humans can board for the Artemis-2 mission, currently slated for 2023.
This will be followed in 2024 by Artemis-3, the first manned landing on the lunar surface since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Follow Paul on Twitter.
[ad_2]
Source link
