Teams at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, completed the first test of the eight-part core stage Green Run test series for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Jan. 30. For this modal test, engineers installed the 212-foot-tall core stage – the same flight hardware that will be used for the first Artemis mission to the Moon – in the B-2 Test Stand earlier in the month. The massive core stage includes two huge propellant tanks that fuel a cluster of four RS-25 engines at the bottom of the stage, along with the vehicle’s avionics and flight computers. For the modal test, a series of actuators designed to shake the rocket are located at three different locations along the stage to mimic the stresses the rocket stage will endure during launch and flight. Engineers also manually use an impulse hammer to test the spider crane, which holds the stage in place, to help establish a baseline for any impact the test stand or external hardware could have on Green Run testing data. Data from the modal test will be used to verify structural vibration modes and flight control parameters for the core stage design.
Image Credit: NASA