Boeing Moon Rocket Passes NASA Test
March 18 2021 - 7:19PM
Dow Jones News
By Doug Cameron
NASA's plans for a lunar mission this year remain on track after
it said a deep-space rocket made by Boeing Co. passed a key engine
test on Thursday.
The eight-minute ground test of the Space Launch System engines
at a National Aeronautics and Space Administration facility in
Mississippi followed an unsuccessful run in January that
jeopardized the agency's broader target of returning U.S astronauts
to the moon by the middle of the decade.
The four engines previously used in the space shuttle program
ran for the planned eight minutes during the latest test, twice as
long as NASA said it needed to secure enough data for a live rocket
launch. During January's run, they stayed on for little over a
minute.
The test provides a boost for Boeing's space program, which has
suffered a number of setbacks in recent years. It is also a fillip
for the program as the Biden administration reviews NASA priorities
and its targets for missions to the moon and into deep space.
NASA aims to use the SLS rocket for its first planned moon
mission, known as Artemis 1, in November. This would fly around the
moon before returning its capsule, which won't have a crew, to
Earth. That schedule remains in flux, and NASA expects to review it
in the coming weeks after the latest test.
Boeing is the prime contractor on the SLS program. Its rocket
and engines built by Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc. will now be
moved to Kennedy Space Center in Florida next month to be attached
to the Orion crew capsule built by Lockheed Martin Corp. and giant
boosters made by Northrop Grumman Corp.
Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 18, 2021 19:04 ET (23:04 GMT)
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