Rocket tanks experience extreme temperatures from cold propellants and friction created as NASA’s deep space rocket, the Space Launch System, soars through Earth’s atmosphere to space. An innovative robotic system sprayed thermal protection foam on the tank, shown here, that will hold the cryogenic liquid oxygen propellant for the first integrated flight of SLS and the Orion spacecraft. The liquid oxygen holds 196,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen cooled to minus 297 degrees Fahrenheit. Now that its thermal protection system application is complete, engineers recently moved the tank to install sensors and prepare it to be vertically stacked with the intertank and forward skirt. Once stacked, these three pieces will form half of the 212-foot-tall rocket core stage, which has four RS-25 engines that produce two million pounds of thrust.
Image Credit: NASA/Jude Guidry