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Huge NASA SLS rocket faces critical test firing before moon mission - CBS News
Jan 15, 2021 1 min, 55 secs

A critical test firing Saturday of the four main engines powering the first stage of NASA's gargantuan Space Launch System moon rocket is the final major hurdle before the fully assembled booster's costly, oft-delayed launch late this year on an unpiloted test flight.

"We're all looking forward to seeing the core stage of the world's most powerful rocket fire up for the very first time.".

The 7,775-pound engines, which earlier helped power 21 shuttle launches, also will hydraulically gimbal, or move to commanded positions at specified times, to verify their ability to precisely steer the rocket during the climb to space, both early in flight and later in the ascent.

Throughout the ground-shaking test, sensors will monitor other stresses and strains, temperatures, propellant flow rates, pressures and a variety of other parameters to make sure the rocket is ready for launch on the first Artemis moon mission late this year.

"The test is scheduled for 485 seconds," said Julie Bassler, SLS core stage manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Said Boeing SLS program manager John Shannon, a former space shuttle flight director: "This is the most heavily instrumented vehicle we will ever fly.

The next time the Space Launch System core stage will be fired is during the launch of #Artemis I, the first integrated flight of SLS and @NASA_Orion, and the first mission of the agency’s Artemis program.

NASA hopes to launch the rocket on its maiden flight late this year, sending the unpiloted Orion capsule on a flight 40,000 miles beyond the moon and back.

NASA currently is working to a Trump administration schedule that calls for the first piloted SLS-Orion flight — Artemis 2 — in 2023, followed by a moon landing using the third SLS rocket by the end of 2024.

For its part, the SLS team is optimistic the first Artemis rocket will be ready for launch before the end of the year.

"This powerful rocket is is going to put us in a position to be ready to support the agency and the country's deep space mission to the moon and beyond," said John Honeycutt, NASA SLS program manager at Marshall.

NASA's inspector general reported last March that total SLS program costs were expected to climb above $18 billion by the time the Artemis 1 rocket finally takes off

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