Jamie Bennet
NASA and its industry partners have completed the initial test of a redesigned rocket engine that would be used on Artemis V and other future missions of the Space Launch System.
The agency said Friday it conducted the trial at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, in collaboration with Aerojet Rocketdyne, lead contractor of the RS-25 engine, and Syncom Space Services, the main contractor for Stennis.
The team performed a single-engine hot fire experiment of the modified RS-25 as a precondition for next year’s certification tests. It was shut down by a non-flight monitoring system at 209.5 seconds, earlier than the scheduled 500-second hot fire.
NASA and Aerojet are analyzing data to identify the reason for the early shutdown, as well as to evaluate the performance of the engine and its monitoring system. RS-25 was performing normally based on preliminary findings, according to Johnny Heflin, SLS liquid engines manager at Marshall Space Flight Center in Florida.
New RS-25s will be produced for planned lunar and other missions, which will involve SLS. Each rocket flight will be powered by four of the engines, all of which will be tested at the Fred Haise Test Stand at Stennis.
