After aborted SLS hot-fire test, NASA and Boeing will try, try again

Posted by
Check your BMI
Hot Fire Test of SLS Rocket Core Stage
Photo by NASA/Robert Markowitz via Getty Images
toonsbymoonlight

NASA will make another attempt next month to test-fire its massive Space Launch System rocket after its first try was cut short, the agency said Friday night.

The rocket’s 212-foot-tall core stage will try to fire its four engines for eight minutes at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The attempt is the last milestone “Green Run” test before the behemoth rocket gets shipped to Florida for its debut launch toward the moon.

All four of the rocket’s Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines ignited together for the first time earlier this month. But what was intended to be an eight minute test only lasted a little over a minute — a much shorter runtime than what engineers needed to proceed to Florida. The SLS core has been in development…

Continue reading…