AFP :
Nasa successfully carried out a key static test of its troubled Space Launch System rocket on Thursday, a win for the agency as it prepares to return to the Moon. The second “hot fire” test saw all four of the rocket’s RS-25 engines fire simultaneously at 2040 GMT for the full duration of eight minutes, producing a maximum of 1.6 million pounds of thrust.
“The applause says a lot about how the team feels,” Bill Wrobel, an official in charge of the test, said during a livestream after the control room began clapping. “Looks pretty good right now,” he added. “This is a major milestone towards advancing our goals objectives for Artemis,” acting Nasa Administrator Steve Jurczyk later told reporters, referring to the lunar program.
Nasa plans to place the first woman on the Moon by 2024 and build a lunar orbital station, before eventually embarking on a crewed mission to Mars. The test’s success came as a relief to the agency after an earlier run involving the 65-meter high core stage at the Stennis Space Centre near Bay St Louis, Mississippi was cut short in January. “We’ve had some challenges,” said Tom Whitmeyer, Nasa’s deputy associate administrator of exploration system development.
“I’m just so proud of the team with the way they’ve methodically worked through these challenges.” Thursday’s test was required to collect data on how the core stage behaves during critical operations like throttling engines up and down and moving them in a variety of patterns.
The rocket’s tanks were filled with 2.6 million litres of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, which when burned sent a huge plume of water vapor soaring into the sky. Engineers will analyze the data and decide whether the stage is ready to be refurbished and transported by barge to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
