NASA is confident about Space Launch System
(Mirror Daily, United States) Engineers at NASA are proud of their new achievement, which proved to be excellent at the final tests. What they recently have tested for was the engine of the Space Launch System (SLS) deep-space rocket, which may take astronauts to Mars as soon as possible.
Space Launch System’s engine is an RS-25 model. It underwent three tests so far, and the results are satisfying, leading engineers to believe that the other tests to come will be as successful as these ones. The prototype has to undergo six such trials, which will assure its creators that everything works properly when in space. The next tests are due to this autumn.
The latest test confirmed that the engine has enough power to propel the NASA rocket. The performance of the engine was tested last Thursday, on August 18, and it lasted for about seven minutes. The testing took place in Mississippi. There was also press at the event, and a conference was held a day before the testing.
The Space Launch System’s will require four RS-25 engines, as it needs a lot of power and will be able to carry four people. Science Alert reports on the preparations for the launching of the rocket:
“When completed, the SLS will be powered by two five-segment boosters – one of which was tested earlier this month – and four RS-25 main engines.”
RS-25 engines were used by NASA before, but now they have been greatly improved. The leading specialist behind the project is Aerojet Rocketdyne, and he also supervised the tests on his product.
One of the astronauts, Rick Mastracchio, declared on the prototype at a conference in Stennis Space Centre in Mississippi:
“SLS is going to be the most powerful rocket ever built when it’s done several years from now. It’s going to have to throw up all this hardware into low Earth orbit so we can then take it to the Moon and beyond, all the way to Mars.” (Rick Mastracchio, astronaut).
The first flight of the Space Launch System powered by its four RS-25 engines is scheduled two years from now, in 2018. By then, engineers promise to have finished all the other remaining tests.
Image courtesy of: Wikipedia