NASA and its industry partners have completed manufacture and checkout of 10 motor segments that will power two of the largest solid propellant boosters ever built. The solid rocket fuel will help produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send NASA’s Space Launch System rocket on its first integrated flight with the Orion spacecraft. Technicians at Northrop Grumman in Promontory, Utah, in coordination with SLS program leads at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, finalized the fabrication of all 10 motor segments and fitted them with key flight instrumentation. They’ll be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, joined with booster forward and aft assemblies, and readied to power the SLS Artemis 1 test flight when it launches from Kennedy. The uncrewed test launch will pave the way for a new era of groundbreaking science and exploration missions beyond low-Earth orbit, carrying crew and cargo to the Moon and on to Mars. Marshall manages the Space Launch System for NASA.
Image Credit: NASA