One of the larger pieces of ground support equipment that will be used to prepare NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for its launch on Exploration Mission-1 arrived April 25, 2019, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The engine vertical installer arrived at the center from the manufacturer, Precision Fabrication and Cleaning in Canaveral Groves. The new equipment will be ready for preflight processing in the event one of the four RS-25 engines on the core stage of the rocket needs to be replaced. The engine installer has its own dedicated platform measuring 30 feet wide by 30 feet long by 15 feet tall. The engine installer was designed and developed by Exploration Ground Systems at Kennedy.
During launch of the SLS and Orion spacecraft, the four core stage engines will provide 512,000 pounds of thrust each to lift the rocket and Orion spacecraft off Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy. The uncrewed Orion will travel on a three-week test mission thousands of miles beyond the Moon and back to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston