NASA successfully accelerated the center stage of the massive SLS rocket in the Green Run test

NASA is testing the 212-foot-tall center stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the tallest rocket stage the agency has ever built, with a Green Run test on Earth before launch day. The center stage layout will be used for all SLS rocket configurations, and the series of eight tests will verify that the stage is ready for the first and future Artemis lunar missions. Credit: NASA

POT successfully lit center stage at the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi on December 5 and began the process of loading propellant for the first time into the Space Launch System (SLS) on December 7. To complete this wet general test exercise, more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic or supercooled propellants are transferred from the facility’s barge systems to the central stage. To test the propellant charging procedures, the engineers successfully charged a small amount of liquid hydrogen into the central stage without any problems. Then, they paused the propellant loading to review the data and adjust procedures before loading additional propellant.

This is the seventh of eight Green Run tests for the Artemis I main stage built by Boeing and the four RS-25 engines built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. For this test, the team focused on the first exposure of the core stage to cryogenic propellants. Six barges filled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen supplied the propellant to the B-2 test bed at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where the Green Run tests are taking place.

The Green Run test series of the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is currently underway. The teams installed the 212-foot-tall center stage, the same rocket hardware that will be used for the first Artemis mission to the Moon, on the B-2 testbed at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, for the Central Stage Green Run Test Series in January 2020. The full eight-part test series, or execution, will consistently bring in the center stage flight hardware, or new “green” hardware, to life for the first time. The series of tests adds up to a “hot fire” when all four RS-25 engines fire simultaneously. The maximum thrust of the four RS-25 engines during launch and climb is 2 million pounds. During Green Run tests on the B-2 test bed, the thrust of the RS-25 engine reaches a maximum of 1.6 million pounds, which is the maximum thrust that the engines produce at sea level on the platform launching. The center stage design will be used for all SLS rocket configurations, and the series of eight tests will verify that the stage is ready for the first and future Artemis lunar missions. Credit: NASA / Kevin O’Brien

Engineers monitored the center stage’s giant propellant tanks and complex propulsion systems for potential leaks or other problems that stages have historically experienced the first time cryogenic propellants are loaded.

Operations continue and the team will refine procedures and resume wet clothing rehearsal testing in the coming days. The center stage performed well and there are no problems with the stage, the B-2 dyno or other facilities at Stennis.

The purpose of the test is to complete the initial operations using the new facilities and the new rocket stage and to adjust the processes as necessary. The wet dress rehearsal is the seventh of eight Green Run events to be held on the main stage at Artemis I. Please revisit this blog for more updates.

Credit: NASA