NASA Hot-Fires Artemis Rocket Engine

NASA and L3Harris Technologies fired a developmental RS-25 engine for 500 seconds on Oct. 21 at Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, to check flight parts for Artemis moon missions, NASA said.

The source gives no clock time for the test, so none is stated here.

NASA says test teams ran engine No. 10001 on the Fred Haise Test Stand for almost eight-and-a-half minutes, the same length of time RS-25 engines fire during a launch of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. Operators also took the engine up to 111% power, which NASA says matches the thrust new production engines need to launch SLS and the Orion spacecraft to orbit.

The goals, per NASA: acceptance test RS-25 flight components for future Artemis missions, and validate a new thermal protection system that shields the engine nozzle from the heat around SLS during launch. This engine will not fly. NASA says the test still gives the agency and L3Harris, its prime contractor, a way to capture data to improve engine performance and reliability.

One detail worth noting: the test crew came from three organizations. NASA says the operators were from NASA, L3Harris and Nova Space Solutions.

For context, NASA says four RS-25 engines produce up to 2 million pounds of combined thrust to help launch SLS on each Artemis mission. It also says every RS-25 engine is tested and proven flightworthy at Stennis before use.

What comes next is not in NASA's release. It gives no date for another test and no launch the data is tied to, so there is nothing to put on a calendar yet.

Stay curious.

Find more at spacedew.com and @boggleriley on X