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By NASA
NASA/Bill Ingalls President Donald Trump speaks inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, following the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission on May 30, 2020. The mission was the first crewed launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. This marked the first time American astronauts launched on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
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By NASA
NASA Teams responsible for preparing and launching Artemis II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida are set to begin a series of integrated tests to get ready for the mission. With the upper stage of the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) integrated with other elements of the rocket, engineers are set to start the tests to confirm rocket and ground systems are working and communicating as planned.
While similar to the integrated testing campaign conducted for NASA’s uncrewed Artemis I test flight, engineers have added tests ahead of Artemis II to prepare for NASA’s first crewed flight under the Artemis campaign – an approximately 10-day journey by four astronauts around the Moon and back. The mission is another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future astronaut missions to Mars.
Interface Verification Testing
Verifies the functionality and interoperability of interfaces across elements and systems. Teams will conduct this test from the firing room in the Launch Control Center and perform health and status checks of various systems and interfaces between the SLS core stage, the solid rocket boosters, and the ground systems. It will ensure different systems, including core stage engines and booster thrust control, work as planned. Teams also will perform the same series of tests with the interim cryogenic propulsion stage and Orion before conducting a final interface test with all segments.
Program Specific Engineering Test
Teams will conduct separate engineering tests for the core stage, rocket boosters, and upper stage following the interface verification tests for each part of the rocket.
End-to-End Communications Testing
Integrated test of SLS core and upper stages, and Orion command and telemetry radio frequencies with mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to demonstrate flight controllers’ ability to communicate with the ground systems and infrastructure. This test uses a radio frequency antenna in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), another near the launch pad that will cover the first few minutes of launch, as well as a radio frequency that use the Tracking Data Relay Satellite and the Deep Space Network. Teams will do two versions of this test – one with the ground equipment communicating with a radio and telemetry station for checkouts, and one with all the hardware and equipment communicating with communications infrastructure like it will on launch day.
Countdown Demonstration Test
Teams will conduct a launch day demonstration with the Artemis II astronauts to test launch countdown procedures and make any final necessary adjustments ahead of launch. This test will be divided into two parts. The first will be conducted while SLS and Orion are in the VAB and include the Artemis II crew departing their crew quarters after suiting up at the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building and driving to the VAB where they will enter Orion like they will on launch day and practice getting strapped in. Part two will be completed once the rocket is at the launch pad and will allow the astronauts and Artemis launch team to practice how to use the emergency egress system, which would be used in the event of an unlikely emergency at the launch pad during launch countdown.
Flight Termination System End-to-End Test
Test to ensure the rocket’s flight termination system can be activated in the event of an emergency. For public safety, all rockets are required to have a flight termination system. This test will be divided into two parts inside the VAB. The first will take place ahead of Orion getting stacked atop SLS and the second will occur before the rocket and spacecraft roll out to the launch pad.
Wet Dress Rehearsal
Teams will practice loading cryogenic liquid propellant inside SLS once it’s at the launch pad and run through the launch countdown sequences just prior to engine ignition. The rehearsal will run the Artemis II launch team through operations to load liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the rocket’s tanks, conduct a full launch countdown, demonstrate the ability to recycle the countdown clock, and also drain the tanks to give them an opportunity to practice the timelines and procedures they will use for launch.
Teams will load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic, or super cold, propellants into the rocket at the launch pad on the mobile launcher according to the detailed timeline they will use on the actual launch day. They will practice every phase of the countdown, including weather briefings, pre-planned holds in the countdown, conditioning and replenishing the propellants as needed, and validation checks. The Artemis II crew will not participate in the rehearsal.
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Artist concept highlighting the novel approach proposed by the 2025 NIAC awarded selection of the TFINER concept.NASA/James Bickford James Bickford
Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.
The Thin-Film Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER) is a novel space propulsion technology that enables aggressive space exploration for missions that are impossible with existing approaches. The concept uses thin layers of energetic radioisotopes to directly generate thrust. The emission direction of its natural decay products is biased by a substrate to accelerate the spacecraft. A single stage design is very simple and can generate velocity changes of ~100 km/s using a few kilograms of fuel and potentially more than 150 km/s for more advanced architectures.
The propulsion system enables a rendezvous with intriguing interstellar objects such as ‘Oumuamua that are on hyperbolic orbits through our solar system. A particular advantage is the ability to maneuver in deep space to find objects with uncertainty in their location. The same capabilities also enable a fast trip to the solar gravitational focus to image multiple potentially habitable exoplanets. Both types of missions require propulsion outside the solar system that is an order of magnitude beyond the performance of existing technology. The phase 2 effort will continue to mature TFINER and the mission design. The program will work towards small scale thruster experiments in the near term. In parallel, isotope production paths that can also be leveraged for other space exploration and medical applications will be pursued. Finally, advanced architectures such as an Oberth solar dive maneuver and hybrid approaches that leverage solar sails near the Sun, will be explored to enhance mission performance.
2025 Selections
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Last Updated May 27, 2025 EditorLoura Hall Related Terms
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By NASA
The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, on NASA’s 30th Commercial Resupply Services mission, is pictured docked to the space-facing port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module on March 23, 2024.Credit: NASA NASA and its international partners will soon receive scientific research samples and hardware after a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft departs the International Space Station on Thursday, May 22, for its return to Earth.
Live coverage of undocking and departure begins at 11:45 a.m. EDT on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
The Dragon spacecraft will undock from the zenith, or space-facing, port of the station’s Harmony module at 12:05 p.m. and fire its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the station under command by SpaceX’s Mission Control in Hawthorne, California.
After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will splash down on Friday, May 23, off the coast of California. NASA will post updates on the agency’s space station blog. There is no livestream video of the splashdown.
Filled with nearly 6,700 pounds of supplies, science investigations, equipment, and food, the spacecraft arrived at the space station on April 22 after launching April 21 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the agency’s SpaceX 32nd commercial resupply services mission.
Some of the scientific hardware and samples Dragon will return to Earth include MISSE-20 (Multipurpose International Space Station Experiment), which exposed various materials to space, including radiation shielding and detection materials, solar sails and reflective coatings, ceramic composites for reentry spacecraft studies, and resins for potential use in heat shields. Samples were retrieved on the exterior of the station and can improve knowledge of how these materials respond to ultraviolet radiation, atomic oxygen, charged particles, thermal cycling, and other factors.
Additionally, Astrobee-REACCH (Responsive Engaging Arms for Captive Care and Handling) is returning to Earth after successfully demonstrating grasping and relocating capabilities on the space station. The REACCH demonstration used Astrobee robots to capture space objects of different geometries or surface materials using tentacle-like arms and adhesive pads. Testing a way to safely capture and relocate debris and other objects in orbit could help address end-of-life satellite servicing, orbit change maneuvers, and orbital debris removal. These capabilities maximize satellite lifespan and protect satellites and spacecraft in low Earth orbit that provide services to people on Earth.
Books from the Story Time from Space project also will return. Crew members aboard the space station read five science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-related children’s books in orbit and videotaped themselves completing science experiments. Video and data collected during the readings and demonstrations were downlinked to Earth and were posted in a video library with accompanying educational materials.
Hardware and data from a one-year technology demonstration called OPTICA (Onboard Programmable Technology for Image Compression and Analysis) also will return to Earth. The OPTICA technology was designed to advance transmission of real-time, ultra-high-resolution hyperspectral imagery from space to Earth, and it provided valuable insights for data compression and processing that could reduce the bandwidth required for communication, lowering the cost of acquiring data from space-based imaging systems without reducing the volume of data. This technology also could improve services, such as disaster response, that rely on Earth observations.
For more than 24 years, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge, and conducting critical research for the benefit of humanity and our home planet. Space station research supports the future of human spaceflight as NASA looks toward deep space missions to the Moon under the Artemis campaign and in preparation for future human missions to Mars, as well as expanding commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit and beyond.
Learn more about the International Space Station at:
https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station
-end-
Julian Coltre / Josh Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones / Joseph Zakrzewski
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov / joseph.a.zakrzewski@nasa.gov
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Last Updated May 20, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Commercial Resupply International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research SpaceX Commercial Resupply View the full article
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By NASA
6 Min Read A Defining Era: NASA Stennis and Space Shuttle Main Engine Testing
The numbers are notable – 34 years of testing space shuttle main engines at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, 3,244 individual tests, more than 820,000 seconds (totaling more than nine days) of cumulative hot fire.
The story behind the numbers is unforgettable.
“It is hard to describe the full impact of the space shuttle main engine test campaign on NASA Stennis,” Center Director John Bailey said. “It is hundreds of stories, affecting all areas of center life, within one great story of team achievement and accomplishment.”
NASA Stennis tested space shuttle main engines from May 19, 1975, to July 29, 2009. The testing made history, enabling 135 shuttle missions and notable space milestones, like deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope and construction of the International Space Station.
The testing also:
Established NASA Stennis as the center of excellence for large propulsion testing. Broadened and deepened the expertise of the NASA Stennis test team. Demonstrated and expanded the propulsion test capabilities of NASA Stennis. Ensured the future of the Mississippi site. The first space shuttle main engine is installed on May 8, 1975, at the Fred Haise Test Stand (formerly A-1). The engine would be used for the first six tests and featured a shortened thrust chamber assembly.NASA Assignment and Beginning
NASA Stennis was not the immediate choice to test space shuttle main engines. Two other sites also sought the assignment – NASA’s Marshall Flight Center in Alabama and Edwards Air Force Base in California. However, following presentations and evaluations, NASA announced March 1, 1971, that the test campaign would take place in south Mississippi.
“(NASA Stennis) was now assured of a future in propulsion testing for decades,” summarized Way Station to Space, a history of the center’s first decades.
Testing did not begin immediately. First, NASA Stennis had to complete an ambitious project to convert stands built the previous decade for rocket stage testing to facilities supporting single-engine hot fire.
Propellant run tanks were installed and calibrated. A system was fashioned to measure and verify engine thrust. A gimbaling capability was developed on the Fred Haise Test Stand to allow operators to move engines as they must pivot in flight to control rocket trajectory. Likewise, engineers designed a diffuser capability for the A-2 Test Stand to allow operators to test at simulated altitudes up to 60,000 feet.
NASA Stennis teams also had to learn how to handle cryogenic propellants in a new way. For Apollo testing, propellants were loaded into stage tanks to support hot fires. For space shuttle, propellants had to be provided by the stand to the engine. New stand run tanks were not large enough to support a full-duration (500 seconds) hot fire, so teams had to provide real-time transfer of propellants from barges, to the run tanks, to the engine.
The process required careful engineering and calibration. “There was a lot to learn to manage real-time operations,” said Maury Vander, chief of NASA Stennis test operations. “Teams had to develop a way to accurately measure propellant levels in the tanks and to control the flow from barges to the tanks and from the tanks to the engine. It is a very precise process.”
NASA Stennis teams conduct a hot fire of the space shuttle Main Propulsion Test Article in 1979 on the B-2 side of the Thad Cochran Test Stand. The testing involved installing a shuttle external fuel tank, a mockup of the shuttle orbiter, and the vehicle’s three-engine configuration on the stand, then firing all three engines simultaneously as during an actual launch.NASA Testing the Way
The biggest challenge was operation of the engine itself. Not only was it the most sophisticated ever developed, but teams would be testing a full engine from the outset. Typically, individual components are developed and tested prior to assembling a full engine. Shuttle testing began on full-scale engines, although several initial tests did feature a trimmed down thrust chamber assembly.
The initial test on May 19, 1975, provided an evaluation of team and engine. The so-called “burp” test did not feature full ignition, but it set the stage for moving forward.
“The first test was a monstrous milestone,” Vander said. “Teams had to overcome all sorts of challenges, and I can only imagine what it must have felt like to go from a mostly theoretical engine to seeing it almost light. It is the kind of moment engineers love – fruits-of-all-your-hard-labor moment.”
NASA Stennis teams conducted another five tests in quick succession. On June 23/24, with a complete engine thrust chamber assembly in place, teams achieved full ignition. By year’s end, teams had conducted 27 tests. In the next five years, they recorded more than 100 annual hot fires, a challenging pace. By the close of 1980, NASA Stennis had accumulated over 28 hours of hot fire.
The learning curve remained steep as teams developed a defined engine start, power up, power down, and shutdown sequences. They also identified anomalies and experienced various engine failures.
“Each test is a semi-controlled explosion,” Vander said. “And every test is like a work of art because of all that goes on behind the scenes to make it happen, and no two tests are exactly the same. There were a lot of knowledge and lessons learned that we continue to build on today.”
NASA Stennis test conductor Brian Childers leads Test Control Center operations during the 1000th test of a space shuttle main engine on the Fred Haise Test Stand (formerly A-1). on Aug. 17, 2006.NASA Powering History
Teams took a giant step forward in 1978 to 1981 with testing of the Main Propulsion Test Article, which involved installing three engines (configured as during an actual launch), with a space shuttle external tank and a mock orbiter, on the B-2 side of the Thad Cochran Test Stand.
Teams conducted 18 tests of the article, proving conclusively that the shuttle configuration would fly as needed. On April 12, 1981, shuttle Columbia launched on the maiden STS-1 mission of the new era. Unlike previous vehicles, this one had no uncrewed test flight. The first launch of shuttle carried astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen.
“The effort that you contributed made it possible for us to sit back and ride,” Crippen told NASA Stennis employees during a post-test visit to the site. “We couldn’t even make it look hard.”
Testing proceeded steadily for the next 28 years. Engine anomalies, upgrades, system changes – all were tested at NASA Stennis. Limits of the engine were tested and proven. Site teams gained tremendous testing experience and expertise. NASA Stennis personnel became experts in handling cryogenics.
Following the loss of shuttles Challenger and Columbia, NASA Stennis teams completed rigorous test campaigns to ensure future mission safety. The space shuttle main engine arguably became the most tested, and best understood, large rocket engine in the world – and NASA Stennis teams were among those at the forefront of knowledge.
NASA conducts the final space shuttle main engine test on July 29, 2009, on the A-2 Test Stand at NASA Stennis. The Space Shuttle Program concluded two years later with the STS-135 shuttle mission in July 2011.NASA A Foundation for the Future
NASA recognized the effort of the NASA Stennis team, establishing the site as the center of excellence for large propulsion test work. In the meanwhile, NASA Stennis moved to solidify its future, growing as a federal city, home to more than 50 resident agencies, organizations, and companies.
Shuttle testing opened the door for the variety of commercial aerospace test projects the site now supports. It also established and solidified the test team’s unique capabilities and gave all of Mississippi a sense of prideful ownership in the Space Shuttle Program – and its defining missions.
No one can say what would have happened to NASA Stennis without the space shuttle main engine test campaign. However, everything NASA Stennis now is rests squarely on the record and work of that history-making campaign.
“Everyone knows NASA Stennis as the site that tested the Apollo rockets that took humans to the Moon – but space shuttle main engine testing really built this site,” said Joe Schuyler, director of NASA Stennis engineering and test operations. “We are what we are because of that test campaign – and all that we become is built on that foundation.”
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Last Updated May 19, 2025 EditorNASA Stennis CommunicationsContactC. Lacy Thompsoncalvin.l.thompson@nasa.gov / (228) 688-3333LocationStennis Space Center Related Terms
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