NASA and Northrop Grumman technicians in Promontory, Utah, completed casting, or filling with propellant, all 10 of the booster motor segments for the second flight of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, Artemis 2, on July 8. The twin, five-segment boosters flank the SLS rocket on either side. Each produces a maximum thrust of 3.6 million pounds, or nearly 80% of the thrust at liftoff and into the first two minutes of flight, to help send NASA’s Orion spacecraft and astronauts to the Moon. At 17 stories tall, the boosters for SLS are the largest, most powerful solid propellant boosters ever built for flight.
NASA is working to send American astronauts to the Moon by 2024. SLS and the Orion, along with the lunar Gateway, are the backbone for deep space exploration. SLS and Orion will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on missions to the Gateway in lunar orbit. NASA is targeting 2022 to test SLS with astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft.
Image Credit: Northrop Grumman Photo