Space Launch System (SLS)

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Space Launch System (SLS)

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The biggest and most powerful rocket since the Saturn V.

Debut launch is now scheduled for Q1-Q2 2022.

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NASA wants to buy SLS rockets at half price, fly them into the 2050s

The agency wants the rocket to become a "sustainable and affordable system."

Eric Berger - 10/27/2021, 2:10 PM

NASA has asked the US aerospace industry how it would go about "maximizing the long-term efficiency and sustainability" of the Space Launch System rocket and its associated ground systems.

The request comes as NASA and its chief contractor for the rocket, Boeing, are nearing the launch pad after a long, arduous, and expensive development process that has lasted more than a decade. The heavy lift SLS rocket, carrying an Orion space capsule, should finally make its debut during the first half of 2022.

In its request NASA says it would like to fly the SLS rocket for "30 years or more" as a national capability. Moreover, the agency wants the rocket to become a "sustainable and affordable system for moving humans and large cargo payloads to cislunar and deep-space destinations."

NASA sees itself as the "anchor tenant" of the launch system and procuring one crewed flight per year for the next decade or longer. Where appropriate, the agency said, industry will "market" the large launch vehicle to other customers, including the science community and other government and non-government entities.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/10 ... the-2050s/


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Re: Space Launch System (SLS)

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To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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Re: Space Launch System (SLS)

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NASA begins critical final test on mega Moon rocket
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-nasa-crit ... ocket.html
The massive Artemis I rocket is illuminated at dusk atop a mobile launch platform en route to Launch Pad 39B from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA on Friday began a critical two-day-long test of its giant Space Launch System (SLS) rocket complete with a simulated countdown, as the agency gears up to return humans to the Moon.

Known as the "wet dress rehearsal," it is the final major test before the Artemis-1 mission this summer: an uncrewed lunar flight that will eventually be followed by boots on the ground, likely no sooner than 2026.

"The countdown is now underway," NASA said in its Artemis blog at 5:00 pm Eastern Time (2100 GMT), confirming members of the launch control team had been issued their "call to stations."

Data from the test, which ends Sunday mid-afternoon, will be used to finalize a launch date for Artemis 1. NASA had said May could be the first window, but later now seems likely.

It is called a "wet" dress rehearsal because supercooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen will be loaded into SLS from ground systems, just as they would be in a real launch.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket—expected to be the most powerful in history at the time it is operational—was rolled out to Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida around two weeks ago.
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NASA moon rocket faces more flight delays as repairs mount
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-nasa-moon ... mount.html
by Marcia Dunn
The flight debut of NASA's mega moon rocket faces additional delays following a string of failed fueling tests.

Officials said Monday it will be challenging to meet a launch window in early to mid-June. The next opportunity to send an empty capsule to the moon on a test flight would be at the end of June or July.

The 30-story Space Launch System rocket has been on the pad at Kennedy Space Center for the past month. It will return to the hangar next week for valve and fuel leak repairs. The problems cropped up earlier this month, preventing NASA from filling the rocket's fuel tanks for a critical dress rehearsal.

The rocket will likely spend weeks in the hangar before heading back to the pad for a testing redo, said launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson.

Managers are considering various options for getting back on track.
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NASA Determines Space Launch System Testing Complete
by Aria Alamalhodaei
June 24, 2022

Introduction:
(TechCrunch) The testing campaign for NASA’s super big, super expensive Space Launch System is now complete, the agency declared on Friday. All that’s left now for the rocket is launch the Artemis I demonstration mission to the moon, the first in a long line of planned missions to eventually return humans to the lunar surface by the middle of the decade. The launch could occur as soon as late August, NASA officials said.

The agency will roll the 322-foot-tall rocket and Orion spacecraft back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, an assembly hangar at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, on July 1 or 2, where both will be prepared for launch. From there, the agency will have roughly six to eight weeks of work before what should be the final roll-out, John Blevins, chief engineer of the Space Launch System Program, said Friday. Once SLS is back on the launch pad, officials would spend around 10-14 days preparing for liftoff, Cliff Lanham, senior vehicle operations manager for exploration ground systems, added.

NASA declared the “wet dress rehearsal” (WDR), as the slew of tests is called, complete despite a hydrogen leak issue that caused launch controllers to halt the countdown at T-29 seconds (officials aimed to count down to T-9.34 seconds, right before engine ignition).

The leak was detected in the hydrogen bleed line during the propellant loading process, when hundreds of thousands of gallons of cryogenic liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen were being loaded into the tanks. But despite the leak issues, the agency was able to load both rocket stages’ tanks with propellant, then drain them — major testing pieces that the agency had yet to put into place.

While officials did not give an exact launch date, Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for common exploration systems development, said things are looking good for an end of August timeframe.
Read more here: https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/24/nas ... complete/
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Re: Space Launch System (SLS)

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To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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Re: Space Launch System (SLS)

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Fuel leaks force NASA to scrub launch of new moon rocket
Source: AP
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A fuel leak and then an engine problem during final liftoff preparations led NASA to scrub the launch of its mighty new moon rocket Monday morning on a shakedown flight with three test dummies aboard. The next launch attempt will not take place until Friday at the earliest.

As precious minutes ticked away, NASA repeatedly stopped and started the fueling of the Space Launch System rocket with nearly 1 million gallons of super-cold hydrogen and oxygen because of a leak of highly explosive hydrogen in the same place that saw seepage during a dress rehearsal back in the spring.

Then, NASA ran into new trouble when it was unable to properly chill one of the rocket’s four main engines, officials said. Engineers continued working to gather data and pinpoint the source of the problem after the launch postponement was announced. The rocket was set to lift off on a mission to put a crew capsule into orbit around the moon. The launch represents a milestone in America’s quest to put astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo program ended 50 years ago.

The 322-foot (98-meter) spaceship is the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA, out-muscling even the Saturn V that took the Apollo astronauts to the moon. As for when NASA might make another launch attempt, launch commentator Derrol Nail said the problem was still being analyzed, and “we must wait to see what shakes out from their test data.”
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/nasa-moon-ro ... 0001b3eca4

Nasa has become a joke when it comes to manned space travel. I hate to say it.
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