
40yrs ago today, with a lion-like roar, Columbia came alive in a major test before the first Space Shuttle mission. […]
|
||||
![]() The first SLS rocket for NASA’s Artemis moon missions rolls out of its assembly facility. Photo: NASA With four years to go before human bootprints again dot the dusty surface of the Moon, NASA has awarded a contract worth $1.79 billion to Sacramento, Calif.-headquartered Aerojet Rocketdyne to fabricate 18 additional RS-25 engines for the […] ![]() Columbia’s engines flare to life on 22 March 1993, a quarter-century ago, this week, in the third Redundant Set Launch Sequencer (RSLS) abort of the shuttle program. Photo Credit: NASA A quarter-century ago, in March 1993, shuttle Columbia stood ready on Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, awaiting liftoff […] ![]() Each Flight Readiness Firing (FRF) presented the opportunity to extensively test the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) in as close to real-flight operations. Photo Credit: NASA A quarter-century ago, on 6 April 1992, the roar of three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) echoed across the marshy landscape of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) […] ![]() Before each orbiter’s maiden voyage, the Space Shuttle Program completed a Flight Readiness Firing (FRF) of the three main engines. The last FRF, by Endeavour, occurred 25 years ago, this week. Photo Credit: NASA “T-minus 31 seconds…Endeavour’s four redundant computers have primary control of critical vehicle functions for the remainder of the count…” […] ![]() A colossal pall of smoke rises above the A-2 Test Stand at the Mississippi Test Facility on 23 April 1966, as NASA test-fires the J-2 engines for the S-II second stage of the Saturn V. Fifty years later, as Stennis Space Center, the journey continues. Photo Credit: NASA Fifty years ago, tomorrow, on […] ![]() The opening salvo of four Space Launch System (SLS) flights, beginning with Exploration Mission (EM)-1 in November 2018, will contain a core stage powered by four clustered RS-25D engines. Image Credit: NASA More than four years since three of its kind were last fired in anger, on 8 July 2011, to deliver Atlantis’ […] For the final time in the 30-year shuttle program, Endeavour’s engines blaze for their Flight Readiness Firing (FRF) on 6 April 1992. Photo Credit: NASA “Three engines up. All going well.” Thirty years ago, last week, the three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) of the orbiter Atlantis roared to life and burned fiercely […] A row of Rocketdyne-built RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engines just before being shipped to Stennis Space Center for use on the Space Launch System program. Photo Credit: Alan Walters / awaltersphoto.com Last week, California-based Aerojet and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne—the two premier rocket-power providers in the United States—finalized their merger, almost a year […] |