NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) program, Core Stage prime contractor Boeing, and RS-25 prime contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne have completed the biggest test in the 10-year old program, firing the Artemis 1 flight stage for 500 seconds in the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center on March 18. The test was the highest hurdle for the program to clear before the agency’s new launch vehicle lifts off on its inaugural launch to send an Orion spacecraft to the Moon.
The Green Run design verification campaign at Stennis has taken longer than hoped, but after over a year in the stand at Stennis, the Hot-Fire test provides one of the last development data drops that need to be analyzed before first flight. While one team starts going through the multi-terabyte data set, the test team at Stennis will begin vehicle inspections and start to get the stage ready to ship to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch.