Four reusable RS-25 engines will power NASA’s SLS rocket as it ascends into space, and will then be discarded.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said Friday that he is “very confident” of a possible launch in November 2021 for the large Space Launch System rocket.
However, although she expressed her confidence on this date, Bridenstine added that there are uncertainties between now and then. One is technical: The core stage of the SLS rocket must undergo a series of tests this summer and fall before moving onto the launch pad. The second problem is the current COVID-19 pandemic, which is skyrocketing around various NASA centers.
Green Run Test
In January, NASA and the contractor for the central stage of the SLS rocket, Boeing, moved the vehicle to the Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi. Since then, workers have been setting the stage, consisting of four main space shuttle engines and very large tanks to store liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen boosters, through a series of tests.
This week, Boeing officials said they hope to carry out the last and most important of those tests in October: starting all four of the rocket’s engines and firing them for about eight minutes to mimic an actual launch.
If this test is successful, the center stage will be transferred by barge to the Kennedy Space Center, probably in early 2021. After that point, two side reinforcements will be added, along with an upper stage and the Orion spacecraft. This entire stack will undergo further testing before finally launching into an unmanned test flight. A launch date in late 2021 assumes that all of these activities will take place as planned, which is far from true when it comes to a new rocket.
Pandemic concerns
On Friday, Bridenstine also expressed concern about the COVID-19 pandemic. Appearing in a webinar produced by Aviation Week, she said the virus has the potential to affect the schedules of all NASA programs, including SLS.
“I think we are fine for now, but if we don’t control the coronavirus pandemic in the near future, it will be difficult,” Bridenstine said. “If the coronavirus pandemic is not a problem, I am very confident in November 2021.”
NASA’s major human space flight centers, in Texas, Florida, and Alabama, are within states experiencing rapid growth in COVID-19 cases. The situation in Mississippi is also not good, with a seven-day rolling average that quadrupled in the past month to more than 800 cases per day. Stennis was closed for a couple of months this spring due to the pandemic, but has since reopened.
Bridenstine said that when a Stennis employee tests positive, he can shut down operations, perhaps for a week, to assess the situation and track contacts. If that happens long enough, she said, she will eat up the built-in timeline to complete testing at Mississippi’s large test bench this year.
