As part of its efforts to land the first humans on the Moon this millennium under the Artemis program, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is busy preparing for the Artemis 2 flight. This mission, currently planned for next year, will be the first time since NASA's Apollo program that astronauts are sent to the Moon. While the crew will not land on the lunar surface, it will perform a fly bay to test the Orion spacecraft and its ability to support crewed flight. The crew will lift off on the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is the largest operational rocket in the world right now. NASA has been assembling the latest SLS for quite some time now, and the latest changes see the space agency install its four primary engines on the core stage.
NASA Joins 4 RS-25 Engines To Artemis 2 Rocket As Part Of Moon Exploration Program
The RS-25 engines that the SLS rocket uses for its core stage are among the oldest designs available in the industry right now. They were designed as an upgrade to the engines present on the Saturn V rocket's upper stage for the Apollo program, and the first RS-25 engines flew the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981. Since then, the engines have gone through multiple upgrades, and NASA had placed them in storage after the Shuttle retired in 2011.
Engines that will fly the Artemis 2 mission, as well as those that were powering the SLS for the first Artemis flight, are the storage engines that have already been used on the Shuttle. For the Artemis 2 flight, two engines have already flown multiple times on the Shuttle, while the two remaining are new builds that use hardware from previous flights. The new engines have already been tested by NASA, and the two older engines have flown 20 missions between themselves, with one having flown 15 times.
Since the existing RS-25 engines are quite old, NASA and its lead engine contractor for the SLS program, Aerojet Rocketdyne, are also upgrading their design and manufacturing processes. Dubbed as the RS-25E engines, the pair have tested them multiple times since December last year.
12 tests have been conducted in 2023 so far and they include testing the engine's gimballing systems and nozzles. Testing of the gimbaling systems started in April, and upgrades also include a new powerhead and controllers. A powerhead is one of the most important components of a rocket engine since it is responsible for managing the flow of gasses and other functions that are essential for proper functioning.
The engines were secured to the rocket at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, and engineers and teams will now work on connecting their electrical and propulsion systems to the SLS core stage. Apart from the four engines installed, the rocket also uses two solid rocket boosters to generate more than eight million pounds of thrust. These are built by Northrop Grumman, and the Artemis 2 crew visited the company's facilities earlier to view them.
NASA has also rolled out the launch tower for the Artemis 2 mission to the launch pad, and it is currently working on the Orion spacecraft.
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