NASA’s SLS RS -25 engine was tested for the first time at its Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis on January 9, 2009. NASA scientists received vital information about the engine controller unit, inlet pressure and the RS -25 while the engine was being fired up on the A-1 stand. It is the first time an RS -25 engine has been hot-fired since 2009. NASA announced that four RS -25 engines would propel the Space Launch System’s (SLS), in future missions to an asteroid or Mars. Steve Wofford is the manager of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center’s SLS Liquid Engines Office. He stated that the engines will be used to propel the Space Launch System (SLS) in future missions, including to an asteroid or Mars. NASA. The controller unit is the “brain” for the engine. It allows the vehicle and engine to communicate, sending data back to each other as well as relaying commands. Closed-loop engine management is provided by the controller unit. It regulates the fuel mixture and thrust, and monitors the health and status of the engine. New hardware and software will be used to control the rocket’s new avionics architecture. Ronald Rigney is the RS -25 Project Manager at Stennis. He said that this first hot-fire engine test was a major effort by Stennis Space Center’s A-1 team. After the upgrade to high pressure industrial water systems, testing will resume in April 2015,. Eight tests will be performed by the engineers, totaling 3 ,500 second for the existing development engine. A second engine in development will be subject to ten more tests that take 4 ,500 seconds. NASA stated that the second series of tests will include the test of the new flight controllers known as “green running”. NASA also added, “The first flight testing of the SLS will be a configuration for an 70-metric ton ton” lift capacity. It will carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into low Earth orbit in order to evaluate the integration system’s performance. “The SLS will have an unmatched lift capacity of 130 tonnes tons” to allow missions further into the solar system. Video: SLS RS -25 Test Heats up The first test with the RS -25 engine, which will propel NASA’s rocket to deep space, was a success.
