NASA engineers install test hardware for the agency’s new heavy lift rocket, the Space Launch System, into a newly constructed 50-foot structural test stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. In the stand, hydraulic cylinders will be electronically controlled to push, pull, twist and bend the test article with millions of pounds of force. Engineers will record and analyze over 3,000 channels of data for each test case to verify the capabilities of the engine section and validate that the design and analysis models accurately predict the amount of loads the core stage can withstand during launch and ascent. The engine section, recently delivered via NASA’s barge Pegasus from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, is the first of four core stage structural test articles scheduled to be delivered to Marshall for testing. The engine section, located at the bottom of SLS’s massive core stage, will house the rocket’s four RS-25 engines and be an attachment point for the two solid rocket boosters.
Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/Emmet Given