NASA Commits to Future Artemis Missions With More SLS Rocket Stages
NASA has taken the next steps toward building Space Launch System rocket core stages to support as many as 10 Artemis missions, including the mission that will carry the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024. The agency intends to work with Boeing, the current lead contractor for the core stages of the rockets that will fly on the first two Artemis missions, for the production of SLS rockets through the next decade.
Rocket Science in 60 Seconds: What Are the SLS Avionics?
Alex Matras is a software developer for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. In this episode, join Matras inside the SLS rocket’s Systems Integration Lab as he explains how the rocket’s flight computers and avionics help steer, fly, track and guide the powerful rocket through launch and flight to the Moon.
Hot Fire Test Qualifies Orion’s Jettison Motor for NASA Missions to the Moon
A motor built by Aerojet Rocketdyne for the Launch Abort System on NASA’s Orion spacecraft was successfully tested by engineers Oct. 16 at the U.S. Army’s Redstone Test Center on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. During the third and final hot fire test, the jettison motor was fired for less than two seconds in ambient temperatures to produce more than 40,000 pounds of thrust.
A New Spacesuit for Artemis Generation Astronauts
NASA unveiled the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit suit and Orion Crew Survival System suit Oct. 15 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA plans to use the xEMU suit for the Artemis II and Artemis III missions to the Moon.
NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover Tests Descent-Stage Separation
Engineers and technicians working on the assembly and testing of the Mars 2020 spacecraft completed a successful separation test at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on Sept. 28. Both the rover and descent stage will ship to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, this winter. Before then there will be a battery of tests for the rover, including an evaluation of its computers and mechanical systems in Mars-like conditions.
For more information or to learn about other happenings at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, visit NASA Marshall. For past issues of the ICYMI newsletter, click here.