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NASA’s integrated SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission is inching closer to launch – literally.
The agency will begin the multi-hour trek from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today, Jan. 17. Tune into a live feed of rollout on NASA’s YouTube channel.
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NASA’s Artemis II flight test will take Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), around the Moon and back to Earth no later than April 2026.
Image Description: NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, is seen inside the Vehicle Assembly building as preparations continue for roll out to Launch Pad 39B, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAArtemis #Artemis2 #ArtemisII #NASASLS #SLS #Rocket #RocketScience #NASAKennedy
Teams at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, recently completed welding the launch vehicle stage adapter for Artemis II, the first flight with astronauts. Teams moved the Artemis II launch vehicle stage adapter to another area of the Marshall facility to finish outfitting and assembly. The LVSA flight hardware is produced exclusively at Marshall by Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville.
Image Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #KSC #KennedySpaceCenter
Congratulations to the winners of NASA's seventh annual "Photographer of the Year" awards. Michael DeMocker won first place in the category of Places for this stunning image of a Supermoon as it rose over Huntsville, Alabama, home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, on Aug. 19, 2024. DeMocker works at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
The full Moon was both a Supermoon and a Blue Moon. Supermoons are the biggest and brightest full Moons of the year because the Moon is within 90% of its closest point to Earth. While not blue in color, the third full Moon in a season with four full Moons is called a “Blue Moon.”
Credits: NASA/Michael DeMocker
#NASAMarshall #Space #NASA #photography #NASAMichoud #Moon #supermoon #bluemoon
The fully stacked twin solid rocket boosters for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket are mated atop the mobile launcher at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as stacking and assembly activities for NASA’s Artemis I mission are underway. Crews from the spaceport’s Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs teams are currently preparing to lift the 188,000-pound core stage and place it in between the two solid rocket boosters. Teams will use a specialized crane to lift, place, and secure the core stage on the mobile launcher inside the spaceport’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).
The 212-foot-tall core stage, which will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust at launch, arrived at Kennedy on April 27. Together with the two solid rocket boosters, the SLS rocket will provide more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust to launch the first of NASA’s next-generation Artemis Moon missions. Soon after the core stage activity, crews will stack and integrate other elements of the rocket needed for launch preparedness testing that occurs inside the VAB before final assembly of the rocket and the addition of the Orion spacecraft. The mobile launcher serves as a platform not just for stacking but as a key supplier of power, communications, coolants, and propellant for the rocket and spacecraft before launch.
With Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon and establish sustainable exploration in preparation for missions to Mars. SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft, along with the commercial human landing system and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, are NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #KSC #KennedySpaceCenter #StennisSpaceCenter #SSC
Fully loading the propellant and detecting no leaks is a major milestone for the Green Run test series. A total of 114 tanker trucks delivered propellant to six propellant barges next to the B-2 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The barges deliver more than 733,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket as part of the seventh test in the Green Run test series. The wet dress rehearsal test marks the first time propellant is loaded and drained from the propellant tanks of the stage that will help power Artemis I. Six propellant barges send fuel through a special feed system and lines in the test stand to the rocket stage.
Image Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #StennisSpaceCenter #SSC #GreenRun #rocketengine
Technicians with NASA's Exploration Ground Systems rehearse booster stacking operations inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Sept.14, in preparation for the Artemis I launch. The team is using full-scale replicas of booster segments, referred to as pathfinders, for the practice exercise in one of the tallest sections, or high bays, of the VAB built for stacking rockets. As part of the rehearsal, a pathfinder for an aft segment, the very bottom of the stack, was prepared in High Bay 4. Then, a team of crane operators moved the segment into High Bay 3, where it was placed on the mobile launcher. Careful measurements were taken before the team added a center segment to the stack.
The actual Space Launch System (SLS) booster segments will be stacked on the mobile launcher later this year, following completion of Green Run testing of the rocket's core stage -- a series of eight tests taking place at the agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Under the Artemis program, NASA is working toward landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will test SLS and the Orion spacecraft as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon.
Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis
NASA’s launch and mission teams, along with the Artemis II crew, completed a key test Dec. 20, a countdown demonstration test, ahead of the Artemis II flight around the Moon early next year. The astronauts, supported by launch and flight control teams, dressed in their launch and entry suits, boarded their spacecraft on top of its towering rocket at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to validate their launch date timeline.
Winding the clock down to a point just before liftoff, the rehearsal enabled NASA teams to practice the exact steps teams will take as they move toward launch of the test flight.
From right to left, NASA astronauts Christina Koch, mission specialist; Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist are seen as they depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to board their Orion spacecraft atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building as part of the Artemis II countdown demonstration test, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAArtemis #Artemis2 #ArtemisII #NASASLS #SLS #Rocket #RocketScience #NASAKennedy
We're working late, cause there's a super blue Moon 😍
#NASAMichoud photographer Michael DeMocker captured this stunning image of the super blue Moon rising over Huntsville, Alabama, home to #NASAMarshall and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, on Aug. 19.
Visible through Wednesday, Aug. 21, the full Moon is both a supermoon and a Blue Moon. As the Moon reaches its closest approach to Earth, the Moon looks larger in the night sky with supermoons becoming the biggest and brightest full Moons of the year. While not blue in color, the third full Moon in a season with four full Moons is called a “Blue Moon.”
#NASA #NASAMoon #Moon #SuperMoon #SuperBlueMoon #Photography #Photo #SpacePhotography #Rocket #SaturnV #Apollo
NASA is headed back to the Moon as part of the Artemis program – and the agency’s “worm” logo will be along for the ride on the first integrated mission of the powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft. Teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have applied the historic logo in bright red on visible parts of the Artemis I rocket and spacecraft.
Here, the NASA logotype, or "worm" logo, is seen on a booster segment of the Space Launch System rocket that will fly on Artemis I.
Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #NASAworm #worm
In the next few days, an unoccupied Chinese space station, Tiangong-1, is expected to reenter the atmosphere following the end of its operational life. Most of the craft should burn up.
ESA is hosting a campaign to follow the reentry, conducted by the Inter Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC).
The 13 space agencies/organisations of IADC are using this event to conduct their annual reentry test campaign, during which participants will pool their predictions of the time window, as well as their respective tracking datasets obtained from radar and other sources. The aim is to cross-verify, cross-analyse and improve the prediction accuracy for all members.
These radar images (the image above is a composite of two separate images) were acquired last week by the Tracking and Imaging Radar system – one of the world’s most capable – operated by Germany’s Fraunhofer FHR research institute at Wachtberg, near Bonn, when the craft was at an altitude of about 270 km.
Data and images from the radar are being pooled as part of the IADC campaign.
The spacecraft is 12 m long with a diameter of 3.3 m and had a launch mass of 8506 kg. It has been unoccupied since 2013 and there has been no contact with it since 2016.
The craft is now at about 200 km altitude, down from 300 km in January, in an orbit that will most likely decay sometime between the morning of 31 March and the early morning of 2 April.
Owing to wide variations in atmospheric dynamics and the break-up process, among other factors, the date, time and geographic footprint of the reentry can only be forecast with large uncertainties.
In the history of spaceflight, no casualties from falling space debris have ever been confirmed.
Access a related animation created from radar data via YouTube.
More information
Rocket Science - regular reentry updates and FAQ
Credits: Fraunhofer FHR. Used by permission
Eight rocket motor segments for the first flight of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) are lined up in preparation for stacking at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. As each segment completed processing, workers moved them to the surge bay at Kennedy's Rotation, Processing, and Surge Facility. Each of the fully assembled, 177-foot-tall solid rocket boosters on SLS produce more than 3.6 million pounds of thrust and together provide more than 75% of the total thrust during the first two minutes of launch and flight. The booster segments will help power the first Artemis mission of NASA's Artemis program with the SLS rocket. NASA's Exploration Ground Systems team transported the motor segments to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), and will use a crane to lift the booster segments and stack them one by one on the mobile launcher. The bottom section of the boosters, known as the aft assemblies, were completed in November and moved to the VAB, and the first of the two pieces was placed on the mobile launcher Nov. 21. The boosters are the first elements of SLS to be installed on the mobile launcher ahead of the Artemis I launch. After booster stacking is complete, the core stage, which is undergoing final Green Run testing at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, will be delivered to Kennedy and moved to the VAB to continue rocket construction.
NASA is working to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024. SLS and Orion, along with the human landing system and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, are NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
Image Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #KennedySpaceCenter #KSC
The rocket engine with one of the most storied histories in spaceflight, the RS-25, is returning to space for a second act – this time to send humans on the Artemis missions to explore the Moon.
As the space shuttle main engine, the RS-25 has a proven record of launching 135 missions spanning over three decades. At the end of the shuttle program in 2011, 16 RS-25 engines that helped build NASA’s International Space Station and deploy the Hubble Space Telescope, among other achievements, were stored away.
When NASA began scouting engines to power America’s next super heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), the RS-25 offered an opportunity to forgo costs of developing a new engine, and the ability to leverage the assets, capabilities, and experience of the Space Shuttle Program.
Seen here in the RS-25 assembly deck at Aerojet Rocketdyne’s facility, located at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, are main engines 2057 and 2054, which will fly on the Artemis III crewed lunar mission.
Credit: Aerojet Rocketdyne
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #SSC #StennisSpaceCenter
We are loving the view inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy in Florida!
NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft with its launch abort system was recently stacked atop the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket in High Bay 3 of the VAB. This milestone marks a huge step in the mission that will carry four astronauts on a 10-day mission around the Moon and back in early 2026.
Ahead of rolling out the integrated SLS rocket to the launch pad, teams will be conducting a series of verification tests. Follow along to stay up to date on all things #Artemis!
#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAArtemis #Artemis2 #ArtemisII #NASASLS #SLS #Rocket #RocketScience #NASAKennedy
The first two CubeSats are aboard for the Artemis I mission as secondary payloads that will conduct a range of science experiments and technology demonstrations in deep space.
In preparation for their missions, Lunar IceCube and Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout have been integrated with their dispensers and installed in the Orion stage adapter at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Housed in the spaceport’s Space Station Processing Facility, the Orion stage adapter connects the top of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to the Orion spacecraft. The small satellites, roughly the size of large shoeboxes and weighing no more than 30 pounds, enable science and technology experiments that may enhance our understanding of the deep space environment, expand our knowledge of the Moon and beyond, and demonstrate technology that could open up possibilities for future missions. The payloads will deploy from the rocket after the Orion spacecraft separates from the rocket's Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage that provides the propulsion to send Orion to the Moon.
Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #cubesat #KSC #KennedySpaceCenter
I have some pens and pencils.
A sketchbook.
And a head full of quotes, lyrics and the like.
Come and see them at www.Quoteskine.co.uk
Don't forget to buy the book!
Congratulations to the winners of NASA's seventh annual "Photographer of the Year" awards. Eric Bordelon and Michael DeMocker won second place in the category of Documentation for this beautiful image of a SLS (Space Launch System) rocket core stage at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
This photo shows NASA and Boeing, the SLS core stage lead contractor, preparing the SLS rocket core stage for shipment at Michoud. On July 6, 2024, NASA and Boeing moved the Artemis II rocket stage to Building 110. The core stage of SLS is the largest NASA has ever built by length and volume, and it was manufactured at Michoud using state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment. Designed and managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration. Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
Credits: NASA/Eric Bordelon & Michael DeMocker
#NASAMarshall #Space #NASA #photography #NASAMichoud #SpaceLaunchSystem #SLS #photography
The NASA team is moving parts of the Space Launch System rocket to begin assembly of the forward, or upper part, of the rocket’s core stage for the Artemis II Moon mission. On March 19, the intertank was moved to the vertical assembly area at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the core stage is manufactured. The intertank flight hardware is part of the upper portion of the core stage that will help power Artemis II, the second flight of the deep space rocket and the first crewed lunar mission of NASA’s Artemis program.
Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #MAF #MichoudAssemblyFacility #Michoud #intertank
Trying to put the final pieces 🔨🔩🔧together in ’The Astronot’ movie . The trailer for the film is in the profile link.
Engineers are welding the core stage structures for the Artemis III mission, which will land the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface, through a process called friction stir welding. Each of the structures for the core stage has rings that attach the pieces together to produce one stage during final assembly. The rings are trimmed down to 1/1000th of an inch at the ring machining center then sent to another part of the facility for the next phase of manufacturing. Assembling the 5.5-million-pound SLS rocket for the Artemis missions takes special tools and is a collaborative effort between NASA and Boeing, the lead contractor for the core stage.
Image Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #MichoudAssemblyFacility #MAF #Michoud
NASA Marshall photographer Charles Beason captured this image of students from the University of Massachusetts Amherst carrying their high-powered rocket toward the launch pad at NASA’s 2025 Student Launch competition on May 4.
More than 980 middle school, high school, and college students from across the nation launched more than 40 high-powered amateur rockets just north of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This year marked the 25th anniversary of the competition.
To compete, students follow the NASA engineering design lifecycle by going through a series of reviews for nine months leading up to launch day. Each year, a payload challenge is issued to the university teams, and this year’s task focused on communication. Teams were required to have “reports” from STEMnauts, non-living objects inside their rocket, that had to relay real-time data to the student team’s mission control. This Artemis Student Challenge took inspiration from the agency’s Artemis missions, where NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefit, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
#NASA #StudentLaunch #ArtemisStudentChallenge #RocketScience #Rockets #ItIsRocketScience #Competition #SpaceExploration
On 10 October, ESA’s deep-space radio dish in Cebreros, Spain, transmitted an 866 sec interstellar message towards the North Star as part of the international "A Simple Response" project.
This 30 sec exposure was taken just as the 35 m-diameter dish completed rotating from pointing at the the North Star back to the vertical parked position.
This week and next, the Cebreros antenna will play a crucial role in the arrival of ESA’s ExoMars orbiter and lander at the Red Planet, set for 19 October. It will communicate with both the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the older Mars Express.
More information on Cebreros station.
Credit: ESA/JL Lopez CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Can you feel the ground rumbling? Wednesday marked the first full-scale booster test to support future flights of the SLS rocket beyond #Artemis III. You'll want the sound on to watch the highlights from the Sept. 2 Flight Support Booster-1 (FSB-1) test in Utah!
Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #solidrocketbooster
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, middle, and Dr. Quincy K. Brown, front right, senior policy advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, are shown the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket by Jennifer Boland-Masterson, left, director of manufacturing and site leader at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility for Boeing, during a March 31 visit to Michoud in New Orleans. They are accompanied by Michoud Facility Director Lonnie Dutreix, back right. The 212-foot-tall core stage and its four RS-25 engines will help power NASA’s Artemis II flight test, the first crewed Artemis mission that will send four astronauts around the Moon and return them home to test the spacecraft in deep space ahead of lunar surface missions. Teams at Michoud recently integrated the last of the five major core stage structures and unboxed the four RS-25 engines. NASA and Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, along with Aerojet Rocketdyne, the RS-25 engine lead contractor, are preparing to install the engines to the base of the rocket’s core stage. The core stage and its RS-25 engines produce more than 2 million pounds of thrust at launch.
NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with Orion and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
#NASA #NASAMarshall #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #exploration #rocket #artemis #MichoudAssemblyFacility #ArtemisII
The date is set. NASA and its partners, @Boeing and @AerojetRocketdyne, will conduct a "hot fire" of the core stage for NASA's Space Launch System rocket on Saturday, Jan. 16 at @NASAStennis. The hot fire test is the eighth and final test of the SLS Green Run test series. Together with the previously completed #NASAMarshall structural test campaign and RS-25 engine test series at Stennis, Green Run testing verifies the core stage and its engines are ready for NASA's Artemis missions to the Moon. You can watch the broadcast LIVE on NASA TV and on the agency's website on Saturday.
Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #SSC #StennisSpaceCenter
Two additional secondary payloads that will travel to deep space on Artemis I, the first flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, are ready for launch.
The Team Miles and EQUilibriUm Lunar-Earth point 6U Spacecraft (EQUULEUS) CubeSats are tucked into dispensers and installed in the Orion stage adapter the ring that connects Orion to the SLS rocket. They are joining five other secondary payloads that were recently installed. These small satellites, known as CubeSats, will conduct a variety of science experiments and technology demonstrations. The CubeSats will deploy after the Orion spacecraft separates from SLS.
In this image, members of the EQUULEUS (EQUilibriUm Lunar-Earth point 6U Spacecraft) team prepare their CubeSat to be loaded in the Space Launch System’s Orion stage adapter for launch on the Artemis I mission. This CubeSat, developed jointly by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the University of Tokyo, will help scientists understand the radiation environment in the region of space around Earth called the plasmasphere.
Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #JAXA #cubesat
Technicians are manufacturing NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) core stage for the Artemis II lunar mission at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The core stage for the deep space rocket consists of two huge propellant tanks, four RS-25 engines, and miles of cabling for the avionics systems and flight computers. All the main core stage structures for Artemis II, the first mission with astronauts, have been built and are being outfitted with electronics, feedlines, propulsion systems, and other components. Technicians are currently wiring and performing functional tests on the avionics inside both the forward skirt and intertank sections. The engine section – the most complicated part of the stage – is in production assembly.
Image Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #KennedySpaceCenter #KSC
As part of the Artemis program, NASA is returning astronauts to the Moon where we will prepare for human exploration of Mars. Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, experts from NASA, industry, and academia are pioneering methods to print the rocket parts that could power those journeys.
NASA’s Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology project, or RAMPT, is advancing development of an additive manufacturing technique to 3D print rocket engine parts using metal powder and lasers. The method, called blown powder directed energy deposition, could bring down costs and lead times for producing large, complex engine components like nozzles and combustion chambers. Prior developments in additive manufacturing did not have the large-scale capabilities this emerging technology provides.
The printing method injects metal powder into a laser-heated pool of molten metal, or melt pool. The blown powder nozzle and laser optics are integrated into a print-head. This print-head is attached to a robot and moves in a pattern determined by a computer building one layer at a time. The fabrication method has many advantages, including the ability to produce very large pieces – limited only by the size of the room in which they are created. It can also be used to print very complex parts, including engine nozzles with internal coolant channels. Rocket engine nozzles that contain internal coolant channels run cryogenic propellant through the channels to help keep the nozzle at safe temperatures.
Blown powder directed energy deposition can produce large structures – such as these engine nozzles – cheaper and quicker than traditional fabrication techniques.
Image credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #3dprinting
Skywatchers, this is your last chance to see a Supermoon this year!
The next full Moon, also known as the Beaver Moon, will occur on Nov. 15, starting at 4:29 p.m. EST. The term “supermoon” was coined in 1979 and occurs when a full Moon coincides with its closest approach to Earth - making it appear bigger and brighter than usual.
Image Credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAMichoud #Moon #Supermoon #FullMoon #NASAMoon
Working on putting the pieces together for 'The Astronot' film (bit.ly/AstroTease) but not having much success. Hopefully the rocket shall be done soon (bit.ly/FBAstro).
NASA is preparing the Space Launch System rocket core stage that will help power the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis campaign for shipment. On July 6, NASA and Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, moved the Artemis II rocket stage to another part of the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The move comes as teams prepare to roll the massive rocket stage to the agency’s Pegasus barge for delivery to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in mid-July.
Prior to the move, technicians began removing external access stands, or scaffolding, surrounding the rocket stage in early June. NASA and Boeing teams used the scaffolding surrounding the core stage to assess the interior elements, including its complex avionics and propulsion systems. The 212-foot core stage has two huge propellant tanks, avionics and flight computer systems, and four RS-25 engines, which together enable the stage to operate during launch and flight.
Credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
#Artemis #NASAMarshall #Space #NASASLS #NASA #NASAMichoud
We're serving up some rocket hardware for Thanksgiving!
Earlier this month, the liquid oxygen tank for the third SLS (Space Launch System) core stage was lifted into a production cell at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility. Move crews then set it atop the previously loaded intertank.
Once the liquid oxygen tank is securely joined with the intertank, our crews will add the forward skirt to complete the core stage’s forward join. Another step toward launching NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.
Wishing everyone a safe and inspiring Thanksgiving from all of us here at Michoud and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center!
#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAArtemis #NASASLS #SLS #Rocket #RocketScience #NASAMichoud
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The solid rocket boosters for NASA's Space Launch System rocket are the largest, most powerful boosters every built for flight. As NASA and Northrop Grumman teams in Utah prepare for a Flight Support Booster (FSB-1) test of NASA's Space Launch System rocket on Sept. 2, learn more about the SLS boosters in this episode of Rocket Science in 60 Seconds with SLS booster subsystem manager and #NASAMarshall team member Julia Khodabandeh.
Image credit: NASA/Tyson Eason
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #solidrocketbooster
This video shows how crews at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are manufacturing and assembling the launch vehicle stage adapter (LVSA) for the second flight of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The launch vehicle stage adapter in this video will be used for Artemis II, the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis program. The launch vehicle stage adapter is a cone-shaped piece of hardware that connects the rocket’s upper and lower stages. The LVSA is welded together as two unique cones, then stacked on top of one another. Technicians recently moved the aft cone to begin welding the LVSA at Marshall. While the larger stages of the SLS rocket are manufactured at other NASA facilities, the LVSA flight hardware is produced exclusively at Marshall by Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville.
Image Credit: NASA
#NASA #space #moon #Mars #NASAMarshall #msfc #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #rockets #exploration #engineering #explore #rocketscience #artemis #LVSA #ArtemisII
Ecoline ink on Steinbach paper 27x36 cm.
She packed her bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour six a.m.
And she's gonna be high as a kite by then
She misses the earth so much
It's lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight
All this science she doesn't understand
It's just her job five days a week
A rocket woman
And she thinks it's gonna be a long long time...
(inspired by 'Rocket Man', a song of Elton John, 1972)
The four women in charge of the effort to build and test the 212-foot-tall rocket stage that will enable NASA's first Artemis mission to the Moon watch as the first completed core stage for NASA's Space Launch System Program rolls out from the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on Jan. 8, 2020. These key leaders are, from left, Lisa Bates, NASA Stages element deputy manager; Jennifer Boland-Masterson, Boeing Michoud production/operations manager; Julie Bassler, NASA Stages element manager; and, Noelle Zietsman, Boeing chief engineer. Each of these women manage the entire scope of design, development, testing and production of the complex core stage that will power the super heavy-lift rocket and the agency's Artemis lunar missions. Combined, the women have 90 years of experience in the aerospace and defense industries. Bassler and Bates previously held leadership positions within many NASA programs and projects, including International Space Station, space shuttle, microgravity experiments, robotic lunar landers and other launch vehicles. Â Manufacturing of the core stages for the SLS rocket is a multistep, collaborative process for NASA and Boeing, the core stage lead contractor. The first core stage for Artemis I is undergoing the core stage Green Run test series at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, ahead of the program's first launch. Michoud manufacturing teams are currently producing core stages for the second and third Artemis missions.
NASA is working to land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with Orion and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon. SLS will be the most powerful rocket in the world and will send astronauts in the Orion spacecraft farther into space than ever before. No other rocket is capable of carrying astronauts in Orion around the Moon.
Image credit: NASA/Jude Guidry
The next milestone for NASA's SLS (Space Launch System) rocket is right around the corner as the cone-shaped launch vehicle stage adapter for NASA's Artemis II mission prepares to make its way from the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Standing 27.5 feet tall, the adapter plays a critical role by partially enclosing the rocket's interim cryogenic propulsion stage, connecting it to the core stage below and the Orion stage adapter above. Technicians with NASA and Teledyne Brown Engineering, LVSA lead contractor, work diligently to prepare the hardware before loading it onto NASA's Pegasus barge for its delivery to the Space Coast. Stacking of the rocket will soon begin at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, marking a pivotal step towards the agency sending a crew of four astronauts around the Moon during Artemis II. For more information about SLS, visit www.nasa.gov/sls
Credit: NASA
#NASAMarshall #Artemis #NASA #SLS #SpaceLaunchSystem #NASASLS #Astronauts #Moon #RocketScience #LVSA #rocket
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A sketchbook.
And a head full of quotes, lyrics and the like.
Come and see them at www.Quoteskine.co.uk
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Teams at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans have structurally joined all four RS-25 engines onto the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket that will send four astronauts on their journey around the Moon during #Artemis II.
Technicians with NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company and the RS-25 engines lead contractor, along with Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, now will focus efforts on the complex task of fully securing the engines to the stage and integrating the propulsion and electrical systems within the structure.
Image description: The yellow core stage is seen in a horizontal position in the final assembly area at Michoud. The engines are arranged at the bottom of the rocket stage in a square pattern, like legs on a table. Photo Credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon
#NASA #NASASLS #NASAArtemis #Rocket #RocketScience #SLS #RS25 #NASAMarshall #Astronauts #NASAMichoud
A new 4.5 m-diameter dish antenna is being added to ESA’s existing New Norcia, Western Australia, tracking station, ready to catch the first signals from newly launched satellites. The new antenna will allow acquisition and tracking during the critical initial orbits of new missions, up to roughly 100 000 km range. The antenna was designed for low maintenance and operating costs and can go into hibernation when it is not needed between launches.
Credit: ESA - CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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Professor Einstein makes an appearance at the National Physical Laboratory's water rocket competition in Teddington, west London.
The upper stage for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that will power the agency’s Artemis III mission and send astronauts on to the Moon for a lunar landing arrived at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Poseidon Wharf in Florida, Aug. 9. It will undergo final checkouts by contractors Boeing and ULA (United Launch Alliance) at ULA’s facilities before it is delivered to NASA’ s nearby Kennedy Space Center.
The SLS rocket’s ICPS (interim cryogenic propulsion stage) with its single RL10 engine is responsible for giving NASA’s Orion spacecraft and astronauts inside the big push needed to journey to the Moon in a precise trajectory during Artemis III. The ICPS for the mission is the last of its kind as Artemis missions beginning with Artemis IV will use the SLS Block 1B configuration with its more powerful exploration upper stage for launch and flight.
Manufactured by ULA, the ICPS left Decatur, Alabama, Aug. 1, traveling down the Mississippi River and along the Gulf Coast toward ULA’s Florida facility via ULA’s RocketShip. The RL10 engine is produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne, the SLS engines lead contractor, in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Image credit: United Launch Alliance
#NASA #NASAMarshall #sls #spacelaunchsystem #nasasls #exploration #rocket #artemis #ArtemisIII #ICPS #astronauts #RocketScience #ICPS #Moon
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