SLS - space launch system (3-я попытка)

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Stennis Space Center Drone Highlights

NASA Stennis

Опубликовано: 6 нояб. 2017 г.

With the help of the Kennedy Space Center's drone team, here are some highlights from the RS-25 test on October 19, 2017.

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Space Launch System Scale and Power (Animation) (version 2 - a/o Nov 1, 2017)

NASA's Marshall Center

Опубликовано: 6 нояб. 2017 г.

Animation depicting NASA's Space Launch System, the world's most powerful rocket for a new era of human exploration beyond Earth's orbit. With its unprecedented capabilities, SLS will launch astronauts in the agency's Orion spacecraft on missions to explore multiple, deep-space destinations, including Mars. Traveling to deep space requires a large vehicle that can carry huge payloads, and future evolutions of SLS with the exploration upper stage and advanced boosters will increase the rocket's lift capability and flexibility for multiple types of mission needs.

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https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-completes-review-of-first-sls-orion-deep-space-exploration-mission

Nov. 8, 2017

NASA Completes Review of First SLS, Orion Deep Space Exploration Mission

NASA is providing an update on the first integrated launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft after completing a comprehensive review of the launch schedule.

This uncrewed mission, known as Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) is a critical flight test for the agency's human deep space exploration goals. EM-1 lays the foundation for the first crewed flight of SLS and Orion, as well as a regular cadence of missions thereafter near the Moon and beyond.

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The review follows an earlier assessment where NASA evaluated the cost, risk and technical factors of adding crew to the mission, but ultimately affirmed the original plan to fly EM-1 uncrewed. NASA initiated this review as a result of the crew study and challenges related to building the core stage of the world's most powerful rocket for the first time, issues with manufacturing and supplying Orion's first European service module, and tornado damage at the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

"While the review of the possible manufacturing and production schedule risks indicate a launch date of June 2020, the agency is managing to December 2019," said acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot. "Since several of the key risks identified have not been actually realized, we are able to put in place mitigation strategies for those risks to protect the December 2019 date."

The majority of work on NASA's new deep space exploration systems is on track. The agency is using lessons learned fr om first time builds to drive efficiencies into overall production and operations planning. To address schedule risks identified in the review, NASA established new production performance milestones for the SLS core stage to increase confidence for future hardware builds. NASA and its contractors are supporting ESA's (European Space Agency) efforts to optimize build plans for schedule flexibility if sub-contractor deliveries for the service module are late.

NASA's ability to meet its agency baseline commitments to EM-1 cost, which includes SLS and ground systems, currently remains within original targets. The costs for EM-1 up to a possible June 2020 launch date remain within the 15 percent lim it for SLS and are slightly above for ground systems. NASA's cost commitment for Orion is through Exploration Mission-2. With NASA's multi-mission approach to deep space exploration, the agency has hardware in production for the first and second missions, and is gearing up for the third flight. When teams complete hardware for one flight, they're moving on to the next.

As part of the review, NASA now plans to accelerate a test of Orion's launch abort system ahead of EM-1, and is targeting April 2019. Known as Ascent-Abort 2, the test will validate the launch abort system's ability to get crew to safety if needed during ascent. Moving up the test date ahead of EM-1 will reduce risk for the first flight with crew, which remains on track for 2023.

Technology Advancements

On both the rocket and spacecraft, NASA is using advanced manufacturing techniques that have helped to position the nation and U.S. companies as world leaders in this area. For example, NASA is using additive manufacturing (3-D printing) on more than 100 parts of Orion. While building the two largest core stage structures of the rocket, NASA welded the thickest structures ever joined using self-reacting friction stir welding.

SLS has completed welding on all the major structures for the mission and is on track to assemble them to form the largest rocket stage ever built and complete the EM-1 "green run," an engine test that will fire up the core stage with all four RS-25 engines at the same time.

NASA is reusing avionics boxes from the Orion EM-1 crew module for the next flight. Avionics and electrical systems provide the "nervous system" of launch vehicles and spacecraft, linking diverse systems into a functioning whole.

For ground systems, infrastructure at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is intended to support the exploration systems including launch, flight and recovery operations. The center will be able to accommodate the evolving needs of SLS, Orion, and the rockets and spacecraft of commercial partners for more flexible, affordable, and responsive national launch capabilities.

EM-1 will demonstrate safe operations of the integrated SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, and the agency currently is studying a deep space gateway concept with U.S. industry and space station partners for potential future missions near the Moon.

"Hardware progress continues every day for the early flights of SLS and Orion. EM-1 will mark a significant achievement for NASA, and our nation's future of human deep space exploration," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. "Our investments in SLS and Orion will take us to the Moon and beyond, advancing American leadership in space."

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Last Updated: Nov. 8, 2017
Editor: Sarah Loff

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Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 5 мин. назад

Gerst: 33-month gap between EM-1 and 2 to modify mobile launcher. Should discuss if it's advantageous to have a second mobile launcher.

4 мин. назад

Gerst: no impact of EM-1 delay on SLS launch of Europa Clipper; later determine if it launches after EM-1 or after EM-2.

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Hearing - An Update on NASA Exploration Systems Development (EventID=106609)

House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

Трансляция началась 2 часа назад

Date: Thursday, November 9, 2017 - 9:30am Location: 2318 Rayburn House Office Building

Witnesses:

Mr. William Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator, Human Exploration and Operations Directorate, NASA
Dr. Sandra Magnus, Executive Director, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)

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https://www.nasa.gov/langley/image-feature/space-launch-system-booster-separation-tested-in-wind-tunnel

Nov. 8, 2017

Space Launch System Booster Separation Tested In Wind Tunnel



Image credit: NASA/David C. Bowman

Lift off at the end of the countdown is just the first phase in a launch. Two minutes in, booster separation occurs ­– a critical stage in flight, with little room for error. Engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, are doing their part to support NASA's new deep space rocket, the Space Launch System, or SLS. The rocket will be capable of sending the Orion crew vehicle and other large cargos on bold new missions beyond Earth orbit. To understand the aerodynamic forces as booster separation motors fire and push the solid rocket boosters away from the rocket's core, Langley engineers are testing a 35-inch SLS model in Block 1B 105-metric ton evolved configuration in the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel using a distinct pink paint. The pressure-sensitive paint works by reacting with oxygen to fluoresce at differing intensities, which is captured by cameras in the wind tunnel. Researchers use that data to determine the airflow over the model and which areas are seeing the highest pressure.

Last Updated: Nov. 9, 2017
Editor: Eric Vitug

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Inside KSC! for Nov. 13, 2017

NASAKennedy

Опубликовано: 13 нояб. 2017 г.

Preflight processing for the Space Launch System rocket's first flight is officially underway with the handoff of the rocket's Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, or ICPS, to Kennedy's Ground Systems Development and Operations Directorate. Also, Kennedy employees take part in Energy Action Day by hearing from a panel of solar-energy experts who offered presentations on how to reduce home energy use, NASA's use of solar power, and more.

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https://www.nasa.gov/feature/first-sls-rocket-hardware-turned-over-to-ground-systems-at-kennedy-space-center

Nov. 15, 2017

First SLS Rocket Hardware Turned Over to Ground Systems at Kennedy Space Center

By Bob Granath
NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida

NASA recently marked another key milestone in preparation for human deep space exploration near the Moon. Officials with the Space Launch System (SLS) Spacecraft/Payload Integration and Evolution organization formally turned over processing of the rocket's interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) to the center's Ground Systems Development and Operations Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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Mike Bolger, Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program manager at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, speaks to guests during a ceremony in the high bay of the Space Station Processing Facility. The event marked the milestone of the Space Launch System rocket's Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage being turned over from NASA's Spacecraft/Payload Integration and Evolution organization to the spaceport's GSDO directorate.
Credits: NASA/ Bill White

The SLS is a new heavy-lift rocket designed to send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to the vicinity of the Moon, and ultimately the Red Planet.

During a recent ceremony in the high bay of the spaceport's Space Station Processing Facility, Mike Bolger, manager, GSDO Program at Kennedy, noted the ICPS is the first piece of hardware being turned over to GSDO for processing in preparation for the first integrated flight of SLS and Orion, which is an uncrewed mission known as Exploration Mission-1.

"It's great to be standing in front of flight hardware," he said. "Over the next year, the components of the most powerful rocket in the world will be delivered to the Kennedy Space Center."

John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, thanked the Kennedy team for years of effort preparing the Florida spaceport's facilities for processing SLS and Orion.

"I've seen all your hard work that you're doing relative to the accomplishments you've made in the Vehicle Assembly Building, on the mobile launcher and out at the launch pad," Honeycutt said. "We're looking forward to getting you some more pieces of hardware to start moving over to the VAB so you can put the rocket together."

The ICPS arrived at Port Canaveral aboard the United Launch Alliance's (ULA's) Mariner barge earlier this year, and is the first integrated piece of flight hardware completed for NASA's SLS rocket. It was shipped from the ULA facility in Decatur, Alabama.

After arrival, the ICPS was transported to the ULA Horizontal Integration Facility near Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. There it was removed from its shipping container for initial inspections. Next, the ICPS was moved to the Delta Operations Center for further checkouts. It then was packed inside a canister and transferred to the Space Station Processing Facility.


On April 11, 2017, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage for NASA's Space Launch System rocket is being moved out of the United Launch Alliance Horizontal Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to the Delta Operations Center.
Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett


Packed inside its canister on July 26, 2017, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage has been moved inside the low bay of the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett

The ICPS now will be processed and prepared for Exploration Mission-1, the first integrated flight of SLS and Orion. NASA is managing to December 2019 with four-to-six months schedule risk for launch. With the Orion attached, the ICPS sits atop the SLS rocket and uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. The interim stage will provide Orion with the additional thrust needed to travel tens of thousands of miles beyond the Moon.

"Our human spaceflight mission at NASA is to push humans deeper out into the solar system," said Bill Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We are going to take the Orion spacecraft, with the help of ICPS, farther into the solar system than any spacecraft built for humans has ever gone."

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Last Updated: Nov. 15, 2017
Editor: Bob Granath

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https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/11/20/nasa-expects-first-space-launch-system-flight-to-slip-into-2020/

NASA expects first Space Launch System flight to slip into 2020
November 20, 2017 Stephen Clark


Artist's illustration of the Space Launch System on launch pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA

The maiden unpiloted flight of NASA's Space Launch System, a heavy-lift human-rated rocket and one of the agency's core programs, will likely not be ready for takeoff until 2020, officials said recently.

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NASA officials until earlier this year aimed to launch the first SLS test flight in late 2018, but the space agency acknowledged in April that the huge super-booster's first flight would be delayed until at least 2019.

After a multi-month assessment of the program's recent progress, managers set a best-case launch target in December 2019. But engineers expect more development delays to materialize over the next couple of years during full-scale assembly and testing of the rocket's core stage and the Orion spacecraft slated to ride it on a round-trip flight to lunar orbit and back to Earth.

Officials now expect the Space Launch System, Orion capsule and ground systems to be ready for the maiden flight — named Exploration Mission-1 — by June 2020. There is still some hope EM-1 could be ready sooner.

"While the review of the possible manufacturing and production schedule risks indicate a launch date of June 2020, the agency is managing to December 2019," said acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot. "Since several of the key risks identified have not been actually realized, we are able to put in place mitigation strategies for those risks to protect the December 2019 date."

A report by the Government Accountability Office released in April underlined several technical and schedule concerns responsible for EM-1's launch delay: A missed delivery date for the European-made service module set to power NASA's Orion crew capsule, snags in the welding of parts of the SLS core stage due to low weld strength, and a tornado that struck a production site in New Orleans in February.

NASA concurred with the report's findings and set out to establish a new target launch date.

The Trump administration also directed NASA early this year to study the feasibility of putting astronauts on EM-1, which will be the first launch of the SLS and the second flight of an Orion spacecraft, but the first with Orion's European-built power and propulsion module. NASA announced in May that EM-1 will remain an uncrewed test flight.


NASA has completed major welding for the liquid hydrogen tank for the first Space Launch System mission at the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The tank was the final piece of flight hardware completed for the deep-space rocket's first mission. All five of the structures that will be joined to form the 212-foot-tall core stage, the backbone of the SLS rocket, are built. The liquid hydrogen tank measures more than 130 feet tall, comprises almost two-thirds of the core stage and holds 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen cooled to minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit. Credits: NASA/MSFC/MAF/Jude Guidry

Manufacturing of the SLS core stage at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans picked up pace this year, and all major structural components of the stage have completed fabrication in a giant 170-foot-tall (52-meter) welding device specially built for the Space Launch System.

The liquid hydrogen tank — stretching more than 130 feet (39 meters) long — takes up most of the core stage. The SLS main stage also comprises a liquid oxygen tank, an aft engine section, an intertank section and a forward skirt.

The welding techniques to fuse segments of the SLS core stage proved challenging. A misalignment of the giant weld tool at Michoud halted core stage manufacturing in 2014 and 2015, and engineers had to resolve concerns about the thickness of the aluminum welds.

The SLS core stage will use the thickest structures ever assembled using friction stir welding, a process that uses heat from friction to forge materials together without melting them.

The Boeing contractor team in charge of the SLS core stage manufactured several test articles before pressing on with welding of tanks destined to fly on EM-1. Technicians finished welding of EM-1's liquid hydrogen tank in September, marking the completion of all five pieces of the first core stage.

The next step will be outfitting the pieces with plumbing, wiring, avionics, orange foam for thermal protection, and four RS-25 main engines left over from the space shuttle program. The five components will be assembled to create the 212-foot-tall (64-meter) core stage.

"The big items are done, and the team is focused on the intricate details of outfitting the flight hardware to perform specific tasks for the most powerful rocket in the world," said Chad Bryant, the SLS core stage manufacturing lead at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "When assembled, the core stage will stand taller than a 20-story building and include hundreds of cables for everything from data collection to propulsion systems."

Strength checks of SLS tank test articles will push the structures to their limits using two new test stands at Marshall in the coming months.

"The majority of work on NASA's new deep space exploration systems is on track," NASA said in a statement. "The agency is using lessons learned from first time builds to drive efficiencies into overall production and operations planning."

Officials have established new production performance milestones to ensure the quality of future SLS core stage builds, and NASA and ESA have re-planned the schedule for the Orion service module to account for late deliveries.

In its maiden flight configuration, named Block 1, the heavy-lifter will be able to haul up to 77 tons (70 metric tons) of cargo to low Earth orbit, more than double the capacity of the most powerful launcher flying today — United Launch Alliance's Delta 4-Heavy.

The Block 1 version of SLS will fly with an upper stage propelled by an Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine, based on the Delta 4's second stage.

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, which could fly for the first time before the end of this year, will come in just shy of the SLS Block 1's capacity, assuming the commercial space company gave up recovering its booster stages.

NASA plans to introduce a bigger four-engine second stage on the EM-2 launch, a configuration of the SLS named Block 1B. EM-2 will be the first SLS/Orion mission to carry astronauts to the vicinity of the moon, and is scheduled for launch around 2023, the agency said.

By the end of the the current fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2018, NASA will have spent $23 billion on the SLS, Orion and associated ground systems, with $15 billion of that investment coming since 2012, according to a NASA inspector general report released in April.

Those figures are on top of expenditures made by NASA on the Orion capsule, ground equipment and heavy-lift launcher concepts during the Constellation moon program, an initiative dating back to the George W. Bush administration that was canceled by President Obama in 2010 after cost overruns.

NASA is working on a concept called a Deep Space Gateway, a mini-space station that could be positioned orbit around the moon, to serve as a staging point for future government and commercial landing sorties to the lunar surface. If approved and funded, the first piece of the deep space station could be launched with EM-2 in 2023.

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[Чебурашка]

А в ноябре 2020 выборы президента

P.S. Ощущение, что проходит год и пуск сдвигается на год 

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 20 ч. назад

First full set of @NASA_SLS boosters are complete! Final segments were sent to storage earlier this week, where they will stay until @NASA requests shipment for final integration

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Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 5 мин. назад

NASA's Bill Hill tells NAC human exploration and operations committee they're targeting a Dec 16-25, 2019 launch date for first SLS mission. (Happy holidays...)

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Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 29 мин. назад

Hill: it's "sporty" to get to a December 2019 SLS EM-1 launch date. Have 4-6 months of risk. Gerst: we have no margin to that date, but think it's right one to plan towards versus mid-2020.

6 мин. назад

Hill: about $300M more to build a second mobile launcher versus modifying existing mobile launcher for EM-2 and beyond. Would shorten time between EM-1 and 2, allow other SLS launches (like Europa Clipper) between EM-1 and 2.

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 53 мин. назад

ARTICLE: MAF simulating SLS engine installation with RS-25 pathfinder - https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/11/maf-engine-installation-rs-25-pathfinder/ ...

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MAF simulating SLS engine installation with RS-25 pathfinder

November 30, 2017 by Chris Bergin and Philip Sloss

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Stennis Space Center‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASAStennis 3 ч. назад

A December 4 water flow test on the B-2 Test Stand @NASAStennis marks another step towards core stage green run for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS).

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Stennis Space Center‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASAStennis 40 мин. назад

An aerial shot of the December 4 water flow test on the B-2 Test Stand @NASAStennis in preparation for core stage green run for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) also captures a bird's eye view of the test complex and the center's tugboat.

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 9 ч. назад

Final assembly and transportation crew pose with the 10th @NASA_SLS booster segment as it goes into storage, completing a full flight set of solid rocket boosters!

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 33 мин. назад

FEATURE ARTICLE: Protecting SLS from Fire and Ice - TPS foam application proceeding at Michoud - https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/12/protecting-sls-fire-ice-tps-foam-application-proceeding-maf/ ... - By Philip Sloss. (Everything you wanted to know about TPS foam application on big rockets but were afraid to ask!)

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Protecting SLS from Fire and Ice – TPS foam application proceeding at MAF

December 8, 2017 by Philip Sloss

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 23 ч. назад

#DYK Orbital ATK technicians use upgraded industrial mixers to create the propellant for @NASA_SLS boosters? It takes 40 of these bowls (280k pounds) to fill one booster segment!

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https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/schedule.html

Upcoming Events (All Times Eastern)

4 p.m., Wednesday, December 13 - Coverage of the RS-25 Rocket Engine Test Firing (all channels)