NASA will attempt to fire the engines on its Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket for the first time today and you can watch the fiery action live online.
As part of a critical test before the rocket behemoth lifts off for the first time, the agency plans to ignite the four main engines on its heavy-lift core booster this afternoon (Jan. 16). The test, which is designed to simulate the core stage’s performance during launch, will take place at the agency’s Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi.
Today’s engine test is the final step in the agency’s “Green Run” series of tests designed to ensure the SLS rocket is ready for its first launch — called Artemis 1 — that will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon. That first flight is scheduled to blast off later this year.
NASA’s first Space Launch System Core booster undergoes a fueling test on the B-2 Test Stand at the Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi on Dec. 21, 2020. The rocket’s four main engines will be test fired today. (Image credit: NASA)
The SLS is NASA’s next-generation heavy-lift rocket that will ferry astronauts to the moon as part of the agency’s Artemis lunar program. Launching by the end of this year, Artemis 1 will be the first in a series of missions that will culminate in NASA’s first crewed lunar landing since the Apollo era. That mission, called Artemis 3, could happen as soon as 2024 if all goes as planned.
To that end, NASA is putting the massive SLS rocket’s four RS-25 engines through their paces prior to launch. The agency has been systematically testing each engine and conducting launch-day procedures such as fueling to ensure all systems are working as expected.
The upcoming hot-fire engine test, is the final step in the testing process. On Saturday, engineers will load the SLS core booster with over 700,000 gallons of superchilled propellant before igniting all four of its RS-25 engines at once. This will mark the first time that four RS-25 engines will fire at the same time. (The same engines powered the space shuttle but it took only three to make the orbiter fly.)
Burning for approximately 8 minutes — the duration they’ll burn during a launch to the moon — the RS-25 quartet will generate a whopping 1.6 million pounds of thrust during the test.
“When we ignite the engines, the stage actually will think it is flying,” Ryan McKibben, NASA’s Green Run test conductor at Stennis Space Center, said during a pre-test media conference on Jan. 12. “That’s what it’s built to do. But of course, it won’t go anywhere because the stage is fastened at the same locations where the solid rocket boosters anchored would be anchored.”
As part of the agency’s “Green Run” testing schedule, the megarocket underwent two wet dress rehearsals, during which fuel was loaded, and subsequently drained. Officials said that the tests went well; however, they were not without issue. One of the fueling ops ended early, one was delayed due to temperature issues, and the campaign was also affected by multiple tropical storms as well as the global pandemic. As a result, the agency chose to delay the hot fire test.
The four main RS-25 engines of the Space Launch System core stage. (Image credit: NASA)
Agency officials explained that the delays proved fruitful as the team was able to revise procedures and update the terminal countdown sequence based on pre-flight testing.
The test is scheduled to take place late Saturday afternoon, and that morning, the day will start with a go/no-go meeting where the team will decide to begin fueling procedures. Once that’s underway, a final poll will be conducted at T-10 minutes to determine if it’s safe to proceed with the hot fire test.
The engines will burn for 485 seconds, or roughly 8 minutes. Once the test is complete, a data review will begin, and is expected to take several days, according to NASA’s Julie Basser, program manager for SLS at Marshall Space Flight Center.
“This is the first time we fired up this core stage and this is a huge milestone for us,” she said. We are doing everything we can to ensure that we get the most out of this hot fire test and we are ready for launch. Testing provides an opportunity to learn and make sure that the rocket is ready to fly astronauts to the moon.”
If all goes as expected the core stage will be refurbished and then shipped to Kennedy Space Center to prepare for launch. Its expected arrival is slated for sometime in February, where it will be integrated with the rest of the vehicle already on site.
Along with the four RS-25 engines, the SLS will be powered by two solid rocket boosters that consist of five segments fitted together. (Each booster is made from recovered segments that were used on NASA’s space shuttle program.)
Once fully assembled, each of the two solid rocket boosters will stand 177-feet-tall (54-meters) and produce more than 3.6 million pounds of thrust at liftoff — the bulk of the power during the first two minutes of launch and flight.
This first SLS rocket will be used for the Artemis 1 mission, which is an uncrewed flight that will send NASA’s Orion space capsule on a trip around the moon, helping pave the way for an eventual planned lunar landing near the moon’s south polar region.
Orion is the third vehicle NASA currently has in development that will eventually fly NASA astronauts to low-Earth orbit and beyond. The first, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule entered service in 2020 as it ferried astronauts to the space station in May and November.
Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule is expected to launch astronauts later this year, following a successful second orbital flight test. Starliner first launched in 2019, on an uncrewed flight to the space station but failed to reach the orbital outpost following a series of software anomalies. It’s next test flight is scheduled for no earlier than March and if all goes well, then it will carry a crew of three astronauts to the space station later this year.
Having three different astronaut-toting capsules will provide NASA with the flexibility to routinely send astronauts to low-Earth orbit while also exploring the moon and eventually Mars.
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
