Space Launch System – Page 11

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.

NASA’s heavy-lift rocket and deep space capsule under new management

October 14, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA has announced two veteran space shuttle engineers have taken charge of space agency’s Space Launch System and Orion deep space exploration projects after their previous managers both took the No. 2 jobs at space centers in Alabama and Texas.

Orion spacecraft may not fly with astronauts until 2023

September 16, 2015 Stephen Clark

The first piloted flight of NASA’s Orion space capsule, a vehicle designed to carry astronauts away from Earth for the first time in two generations, may slip from 2021 to 2023, agency officials said Wednesday.

Decision looms on when to introduce new SLS upper stage

September 8, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA officials are waiting to see if Congress adds funding to the agency’s budget next year to kick-start development of a new four-engine upper stage for the Space Launch System, an upgrade that would allow the mega-rocket to loft heavier cargoes into deep space.

Rocket engine fires up in latest test for behemoth booster

August 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

A hydrogen-fueled rocket engine ignited with a bone-rattling sonic wave Thursday at NASA’s test facility in Southern Mississippi, throttling up to more than a half-million pounds of thrust to verify upgrades to the space shuttle’s main engines can power a humongous new launcher off the planet.