NASA Successfully Test Fires SLS Rocket

Test firing the SLS. (Image courtesy of NASA.)

The shuttle program may no longer be in operation, but its legacy is not forgotten.

Orbital ATK and NASA have coordinated as part of the space agency’s new Space Launch System (SLS). The jointly-developed solid motor rockets are a revamped design of the now-retired solid rocket motor boosters from the space shuttle program.

The second Qualifying Motor test (QM-2) for the SLS was recently completed successfully, following up on the successful QM-1 test last year.

The 154-foot-long, 12-foot diameter motor was installed in Utah, with NASA and Orbital ATK using more than 530 data channels to measure performance, acoustics, motor vibrations, insulation upgrades, nozzle modifications and vectoring parameters during the test.

Video of QM-2 Rocket test, courtesy NASA

With this second test, the Booster Separation Motor structural dynamic response was also assessed, with avionics included in the test.

“Throughout the Space Shuttle Program, we regularly monitored and enhanced our motor design, and we have made further modifications to our booster for NASA’s new SLS,” said Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager of Orbital ATK’s Propulsion Systems Division.

“Having personally experienced the power of these motors and been a part of these modifications, I can attest to their reliability,” added Precourt, a four-time space shuttle astronaut and former chief of the astronaut office.

(Infographic courtesy of NASA.)

The QM-2 test was conducted with the solid propellant cooled to 40 degrees fahrenheit, denoting the colder end of the acceptable operating temperature range, while QM-1 ran at the upper end. This has proven the propellant’s ability to operate in the full range of temperatures.

“Testing before flight is critical to ensure reliability and safety when launching humans into space,” said Precourt. “This ground test is an important step in qualifying NASA’s new five-segment solid rocket motor, the largest solid rocket motor ever built for flight, for planned SLS missions to deep space.”

The SLS, along with the NASA’s Orion spacecraft, will provide the platform to send humans to Mars and potentially beyond. Orion has already proven its ability in a 2014 flight test, where it orbited the earth, extending to a range of 3,600 miles - farther than a human spaceflight vehicle has travelled in 40 years.

The first test flight of SLS and Orion together, called Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), is scheduled for September 30, 2018, using two of Orbital ATK’s five-segment solid rocket boosters. The Orion spacecraft is planned to spend approximately 3 weeks in space, with 6 days in orbit around the Moon.

It seems that it won’t be long until we see a human being set foot on the red planet. Hopefully it turns out better for us than it inevitably does in the movies.