In this view looking up inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the work platforms have been retracted from around the Artemis I Space Launch System on Sept. 20, 2021. All 10 levels of platforms were extended and retracted as part of an umbilical test. During the test, several umbilical arms on the mobile launcher were extended to connect to the SLS rocket. They swung away from the launch vehicle, just as they will on launch day. NASA and Jacobs teams will continue conducting tests inside the VAB before transporting the Orion spacecraft to the assembly building and stacking it atop the SLS, completing assembly of the rocket for the Artemis I mission. Artemis I will be the first integrated test of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. In later missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.

NASA has begun key tests of its super-heavy Space Launch System rocket, designed to send humans to the Moon and Mars

On Apr 2, 2022 15:49 147

On April 1, the US space agency (NASA) began preparing its giant Space Launch System rocket, which is designed to carry out manned missions far beyond Earth’s orbit, for key tests. The Space Launch System (SLS) is located at 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (USA). If all goes well, the rocket will be declared ready for the mission, during which it will send a test capsule without a crew on a trip to the moon lasting 4 to 6 weeks. This could happen in the next few months.

SLS is NASA’s new flagship rocket, designed to transport people and cargo into outer space. She will star in NASA’s Artemis program, which will send the first woman and the first colored man to the moon in 2025. The SLS rocket is designed to launch a new capsule for the crew called Orion, which will bring future astronauts to the surface of the moon.

As part of a three-day general “wet” test, the Space Launch System rocket will go through all the stages leading to a real launch. As part of the dress rehearsal, NASA dispatchers will count down to launch and even fill the tanks with ultra-cold liquid fuel (2.6 million liters), as they will on the day of the first space launch. Most likely, it will happen on April 3. This was announced by Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s director of the launch of “Artemis” during a press conference.

SLS is currently estimated at $4.1 billion. It will be the most powerful rocket in history. Its height is almost 100 meters. Block 1 SLS will generate 39.1 meganewtons of thrust on takeoff, which is 15% more than the Soviet “Saturn V”. Although in 1960 the USSR built an H-1 missile capable of developing a thrust of 45.4 meganewtons, all H-1 tests failed.