Tag: MAF
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All four RS-25 Shuttle veterans installed into SLS Core Stage
In a major milestone for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), all four RS-25 engines – veterans of the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) – have been installed into the core stage of the rocket that will conduct the maiden flight of NASA’s new monster rocket on the Artemis-1 mission. SLS will use the full inventory of…
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Turning the SLS engine section over for final Core Stage mate
Boeing’s new plans to finish the first assembly of a NASA Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage horizontally are set to culminate in the use of several new and modified tools to help do something to the engine section it wasn’t originally designed for. All the work to complete standalone assembly of the engine section…
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Boeing completes first NASA SLS engine section, getting ready for final Core Stage mate
Officials from NASA along with prime contractor Boeing formally signed off on the first assembly of the most complicated element of the civilian space agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. After a review of data from two months of functional testing at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans, the engine section element of…
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Boeing assembling structures for NASA’s second SLS Core Stage
At mid-year prime contractor Boeing was progressing through structural assembly of the second NASA Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans. Completing final assembly of the first flight article remains the priority, but getting the next stage unit completed is likely to be a driver of the…
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Shuttle veteran RS-25 engines ready for SLS Core Stage installation ahead of Artemis-1
The four RS-25 engines for the first launch of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) have all arrived at the factory where their Core Stage is being completed. The engines were trucked one by one from Aerojet Rocketdyne’s final assembly facility at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New…
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SLS Core Stage MPS: more than just a fuel tank
One of the main elements of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage that makes it more than just a big fuel tank is the Main Propulsion System (MPS). All the equipment for the care and feeding of uprated Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME), adapted for SLS by Aerojet Rocketdyne as the RS-25, is repackaged…
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Boeing, NASA look to finish first SLS Core Stage by end of year
NASA and prime contractor Boeing have reworked the final assembly plan for the first Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage to bring the scheduled completion date back to the end of 2019. With the engine section at the bottom of the rocket pacing the overall schedule into the middle of the year, changing the sequence…
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Boeing reaches long awaited SLS engine section milestone as NASA makes EM-1 2020 schedule push
Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage prime contractor Boeing reached a long-awaited milestone this week with completion of standalone work on the engine section for the first vehicle. The most complex section of NASA’s new rocket stage is well behind more than one schedule revision, and because it is the critical path in the schedule…
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Boeing reaches milestone of firsts with forward join of NASA’s inaugural SLS Core Stage
The top half of the first NASA Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage now stands assembled in a vertical stacking cell at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans. Prime contractor Boeing bolted the three elements, the forward skirt, the liquid oxygen (LOX) tank, and the intertank together in January at Michoud. After connecting…
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Boeing starts final assembly for NASA’s first SLS Core Stage, work picks up for the second
Over the past month Boeing assembled the top half of the first Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage in a vertical stacking cell at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans. The intertank, liquid oxygen (LOX) tank, and forward skirt were bolted together as the major part of the so-called “forward join” of the…