Manned Spaceflight Update:First Space Launch System Booster Test;International Space Station One-Year Crew Nears Launch

On 11 March,a major milestone was reached when the Space Launch System's solid rocket booster passed the first of two flight qualification tests for deep space missions.The two minute test mirrored an actual flight,since it lasted the same amount of time the booster will burn on liftoff.The test was conducted at the Orbital ATK test facility in Promontory,Utah.After the second qualification test 2016,the flight booster hardware will be transported to Kennedy Space Center for the first flight of the SLS and Orion spacecraft together,Exploration Mission 1 in 2018.
The work being done around the country today to build SLS is laying a solid foundation for future exploration missions, and those missions will enable us to pioneer far into the solar system,said Dr.William Gerstenmaier,NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations.*
The SLS booster was heated for months to reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit,so it could be tested at the highest end of the propellant temperature range.The second test in early 2016 will test the booster at 40 F,the low end of the propellant temperature range.
Our partnership with Orbital ATK and more than 500 suppliers across the country is keeping us on the path to building the most powerful rocket in the world,said SLS program director Todd May.Some 102 design objectives were assessed during the test with more than 531 instrumentation channels.The SLS booster met applicable ballistic performance requirements,including thrust and pressure.Data was also gathered on the new internal motor insulation and liner and the improved nozzle design.
Two SLS boosters will be grouped with four RS-25 main engines for the launch,operating in parallel for the first two minutes of the launch.The boosters provide more than 70% of the thrust required to escape Earth's gravitational field.SLS will be configured for a 70-metric-tonne/77 tonne lift capacity to carry the unmanned Orion spacecraft beyond Low Earth Orbit in EM-1,the first flight of the integrated system.The projected date of EM-1 is 30 September 2018.On future manned missions to deep space,SLS will be configured for a record-breaking lift capacity of 130-metric-tonnes/143 tonnes.*
On 27 March,NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly,Captain US Navy Retired,and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will be launched for the One-Year Crew Mission aboard the International Space Station,accompanied by Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.They will be launched aboard a Soyuz YMA-16M spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome,Kazakhstan.Kelly will be the first NASA astronaut to spend a year in space,but Russia has completed four manned missions of at least one year in duration.Padalka will return to Earth before Kelly and Kornienko.
The One-Year Crew will pave the way for the deep space missions of the future,including Orion flights,by gathering critical physiological and psychological data on the effects of long duration space flights.American and Russian scientists will collaborate on the project using the ISS technology,which is more advanced than the technology Russia had for its long duration studies some 20 years ago,yielding a more comprehensive picture.*
Orbital ATK Inc (ATK)