The first part of the core left the factory in New Orleans to undergo crucial tests and prepare for launch.
The Space Launch System (SLS) is a critical part of the Artemis program of the US space agency, whose goal is to bring humans back to the Moon by 2024.
This core is the centerpiece of the new rocket and will undergo thorough assessments in the state of Mississippi, in the southeastern United States.
On Wednesday, he rode a barge that will take him to his destination.
The rocket, which will be taller than a 30-story building, is being built for NASA by Boeing.
Jim Morhard, deputy administrator of NASA, attended the deployment of the rocket core on Wednesday at the Michoud assembly center, where it was built.
Morhard said it represented “an exciting leap forward in the Artemis program, as NASA teams continue to move towards the launch pad.”
Tests
The program, which was announced in 2010, has been affected by delays and cost overruns.
Some in the space community believe it would be better to launch deep space missions on commercial rockets. But supporters of the program say NASA needs its own heavy-duty launch capability.
After leaving the Michoud assembly center, this Wednesday, the nucleus was mounted on NASA’s Pegasus barge to travel by water to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
The test stage in Stennis, called “Green Run”, will involve operating all the kernel systems simultaneously for the first time.
The four powerful RS-25 engines will be activated for about eight minutes (or maybe a little less) and will be accelerated in different configurations. NASA will mimic the necessary thrust levels during launch.
The core of the SLS contains two propellant tanks: one for storing liquid oxygen and one for liquid hydrogen. Together, they have a combination of 2.7 million liters of propellant for engines.
Previous project
The SLS was designed to reuse the technology originally developed for NASA’s space shuttle program that operated between 1981 and 2011.
The RS-25 thrusters belonged to another orbiter and the SLS core is inspired by the external tank that stored the propellant for the ferry engines (although with significant modifications).
The rocket will provide the necessary power to send NASA’s Orion spacecraft to the Moon.
The inaugural launch of the rocket (Artemis-1 mission) is expected to occur sometime in 2021.
In 2019, John Shannon, head of the Boeing SLS program since 2015, said: “I suspect that once the SLS is ready, there will be no need for another heavy-duty vehicle in many years. So this is a unique opportunity for all a generation. ”
The core is the largest artifact that NASA has built in the Louisiana factory, telling Saturn V of the Apollo program (developed between 1961 and 1972 and that led man to step on the Moon for the first time in 1969).
Orion
Meanwhile, the Orion spacecraft, for Artemis’s first mission, is already built.
He is currently going through the final tests at the Plum Brook Station in Ohio, in the northeastern US.
During the Artemis-1 mission, Orion will fly around the Moon to test the equipment in deep space. The spacecraft will not carry a crew.
The first manned mission will be Artemis-2, which will take four astronauts to orbit the Moon.
Artemis-3, scheduled for 2024, will take a man and a woman to the lunar south pole.
It will be the first time the United States puts its astronauts on the lunar surface since 1972.