NASA Space Launch System Booster Undergoes 2nd Qualification Test On June 28

First Posted: Jun 29, 2016 07:14 AM EDT
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NASA's Mars journey will initiate its qualification test on the world's most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), on June 28. This has been the ultimate purpose of NASA's expeditions for years, dedicating its time on space through rovers and spacecrafts.

During the NASA Space Launch System qualification test, the booster's motor will be heated for two minutes at Orbital ATK's test facilities in the desert of Promontory, Utah. The booster will be cooled to approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit and be placed, constrained horizontally while Orbital ATK technicians inspect the effects of temperature on the performance of how the propellant burns.

Two of the NASA Space Launch System boosters will be attached onto either side of the rocket's main body during lift off and will sustain the huge combustion emitted for the first two minutes of flight, The Verge reported. Each booster burns about 5.5 tons of propellant per second and records about 3.6 million pounds of maximum thrust.

In March 2015, NASA successfully performed a ground test on one of the NASA Space Launch System boosters. The propellant was heated to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest temperature the propellant can reach with the inner engines still properly stable and functioning. This time the propellant was put into the coldest environment the booster's motor can handle in order to see how they can sustain extreme temperatures in the space mission.

"Propellant temperature shouldn't be mistaken for the temperature of the booster when it's fired," said Mat Bevill, deputy chief engineer in the SLS Boosters Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama on Clarksville Online.

Bevill added that the NASA Space Launch System booster may be conditioned to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. However, once it fires, it records about 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit that is why sensors inside and outside the booster are placed in order to measure the propellant temperature.

The NASA Space Launch System boosters, according to Orbital ATK technicians, will be seen again during the first test flight of the SLS. Called Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), the mission is set to take place in late 2018, which will launch an uncrewed version of the Orion crew capsule that NASA has been working on for the past decade.

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