NASA, Boeing looking to begin SLS Exploration Upper Stage manufacturing in 2021
March 4, 2021
Manufacturing and assembly development work for the Space Launch System (SLS) Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) is starting to ramp up at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans. NASA’s SLS Program and EUS prime contractor Boeing are preparing to begin construction of the test and flight articles that will be needed to certify and fly the new upper stage’s first launch.
A structural test article (STA) will be assembled at MAF and tested at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. The first flight article will then be completed and travel from Michoud to the relatively nearby Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi for a Green Run test campaign similar to the one that the first Core Stage is going through.
NASA completes Exploration Upper Stage CDR, focuses new office on SLS Block 1B development nasaspaceflight.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nasaspaceflight.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Space and Physics Developments to Look Forward to in 2021
This year is set to be an important one for astronomy, cosmology and physics as researchers across these fields seek to investigate deeper into the Universe and the physics that governs it than ever before.
Unfortunately, science journalists don’t generally carry crystal balls as part of their arsenal, and if 2020 taught us anything, it’s not always safe to predict what the forthcoming year will bring. With that said, there are some space and physics developments that we can be
fairly certain that will come to pass in 2021.
These are
NASA SLS Core Stage aborts high-stakes Green Run static fire
January 16, 2021
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) program and Core Stage prime contractor Boeing were ready for the big moment of the rocket’s Green Run campaign and the biggest moment in the 10-year old program, a static firing of the stage. After a year of test cases at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, visits from hurricanes, and waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, an eight-minute long, flight-duration Hot-Fire test was planned for January 16 to demonstrate the readiness of the new rocket stage for its first launch.
The firing lasted only 67.7 seconds, well short of full-duration and the minimum two minute duration firing NASA said was necessary to complete the test. The abort was triggered by a Major Component Failure indication on Engine 4.