Space Launch System – Page 10

Tornado strikes NASA’s Michoud plant in New Orleans

February 7, 2017 Stephen Clark

Employees and flight hardware for NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spaceship were mostly spared after a strong tornado struck the agency’s Michoud plant in New Orleans on Tuesday, but crews planned to begin repairs immediately to plug holes in buildings housing parts and tools to build the new mega-rocket.

NASA keeping human spaceflight options open as Trump presidency looms

November 11, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA is taking steps to rein in costs, emphasizing bonds with private sector companies, and signaling it might be open to a future where the agency’s flagship Orion deep space capsule and Space Launch System are no longer necessary to explore deep space, at least in their current forms.

‘Great relief’ the worst of Hurricane Matthew stayed away from space center

October 11, 2016 Stephen Clark

Kennedy Space Center officials said Tuesday that Hurricane Matthew knocked out the main cooling system for the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building and surrounding structures, but they expect no lingering effects from the storm on NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spaceship scheduled for their first full-scale test flight around the moon in 2018.

High-tech camera records rocket test in never-before-seen detail

August 9, 2016 Stephen Clark

A major booster test for NASA’s Space Launch System in June doubled as a demonstration of a new high dynamic range video recorder that captured unprecedented imagery of the rocket firing, revealing hidden details normally masked by the motor’s bright-hot exhaust.

Photos: SLS test booster ignited in Utah

June 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

Pushing out a brilliant plume of nearly 5,000-degree exhaust, a test booster for NASA’s Space Launch System fired for more than two minutes Tuesday to verify the upgraded space shuttle-era solid rocket motor is ready to help send astronauts into deep space.

Space Launch System booster fired in final preflight qualification test

June 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

A solid-fueled rocket motor mounted horizontally on a Utah hillside ignited and powered up to more than 3 million pounds of thrust Tuesday in a final full-up test-firing before a similar booster helps propel NASA’s huge Space Launch System away from Earth on a demonstration flight in 2018.

Huge solid rocket booster to be test-fired Tuesday

June 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

A 154-foot-long solid rocket booster will be ignited for two minutes Tuesday at a remote test site in Utah, wrapping up a series of five ground firings to prove the motor’s readiness for flight on NASA’s Space Launch System.

Q&A with John Elbon, VP and general manager of Boeing’s space exploration division

May 12, 2016 Stephen Clark

Boeing’s work on the International Space Station, the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew capsule and NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System are under the umbrella of John Elbon, who leads the company’s space exploration division in Houston.

Aerojet Rocketdyne wins propulsion contracts worth nearly $1.4 billion

November 27, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA and Boeing have awarded Aerojet Rocketdyne widely-anticipated contracts to restart the production of simplified shuttle-era rocket engines for the heavy-lift Space Launch System and supply the propulsion system for the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew capsule, officials announced this week.

NASA completes SLS design review, confirms rocket to be orange

October 23, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA has finished the design of the Space Launch System, a huge rocket to boost astronaut crews farther from Earth than ever before, and formally decided the launcher’s cryogenic core stage will be burnt orange, the same color as the space shuttle’s external fuel tank, officials announced Thursday.