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NASA Conducts 1st Test Fire of Shuttle-Era Engine for New Rocket

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For the first time in more than 3 1/2 years, a space shuttle main engine roared to life on Friday (Jan. 9) in support of NASA's new heavy-lift rocket.

The space shuttle main engine (SSME), now renamed the RS-25D, fired for 500 seconds atop the A-1 test stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The first fire of a former SSME since the final shuttle launch in July 2011, Friday's test was the first RS-25D hot fire since the end of shuttle engine testing in 2009.

Four RS-25 engines are planned to power the first stage of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket on future missions, including sending astronauts to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars. The first uncrewed SLS test flight is targeted for 2018. [Video: Watch the RS-25 Engine Test Fire]

"The RS-25 is the most efficient engine of its type in the world," said Steve Wofford, the manager of the SLS liquid engines office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where the SLS program is managed. "It's got a remarkable history of success and great experience base that make it a great choice for NASA's next era of exploration."

Three RS-25 engines were mounted to the rear of each shuttle orbiter to power the vehicle through its ascent and initial entry into orbit. On the space shuttle, each of the engines routinely operated at 491,000 pounds of thrust. On SLS, they will need to each operate at 512,000 pounds of thrust (on at least the first four flights) and handle colder liquid oxygen propellant and engine compartment temperatures.

"We have made modifications to the RS-25 to meet SLS specifications," Wofford said, "and will analyze and test a variety of conditions during the hot fire series."

In addition to increased thrust and temperatures, the RS-25 engines used on the SLS will encounter greater inlet pressure due to the taller core stage liquid oxygen tank and higher vehicle acceleration, as well as more nozzle heating due to the engine configuration and their position in-plane with the SLS booster exhaust nozzles, Wofford said.

Friday's test fire collected data on the engine's controller unit and inlet pressure conditions.

The engine controller unit, the "brain" of the engine, relays commands to the engine and transmits data back to the launch vehicle. The controller also manages the engine by regulating the thrust and fuel mixture ratio while monitoring the engine's health and status.

The RS-25's new controller will use updated hardware and software configured to operate with the new SLS avionics architecture.

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NASA Conducts 1st Test Fire of Shuttle-Era Engine for New Rocket

NASA's Aqua satellite spots Tropical Cyclone Bansi intensifying quickly

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IMAGE:NASA's Aqua satellite captured this visible image of Tropical Cyclone Bansi off Madagascar on January 12 at 10:10 UTC (5:10 a.m. EST). view more

Credit: Image Credit: NASA's Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Center

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Bansi on January 12 as it was intensifying rapidly and saw a cloud-covered eye in the storm's center. Bansi has triggered warnings for the island of Mauritius and is expected to continue intensifying while passing it.

On Sunday, January 11, Tropical Cyclone Bansi formed north of La Reunion Island in the Southern Indian Ocean and triggered two alerts. A tropical cyclone warning class I was posted at Mauritius, and a Yellow pre-alert went into effect for La Reunion Island. At 0900 UTC (4 a.m. EST) Tropical Cyclone Bansi (formerly System 92S) was located about 254 nautical miles north of St Denis, La Reunion Island. It was slowly moving to the east-southeast and had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots (40 mph/62 kph).

On January 11 at 06:40 UTC (1:40 a.m. EST) the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of Tropical Cyclone Bansi. The MODIS image showed strong thunderstorms tightly wrapped around the center, and a large, wide band of thunderstorms in the storm's eastern quadrant spiraling around the storm and into the center from the west.

By January 12 at 10:10 UTC (5:10 a.m. EST) when the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead, the storm had rapidly consolidated and the bands of thunderstorms circling the center had expanded. Bands of thunderstorms spiraling around the storm wrapped around the storm from the northwest to the southeast and finally wrapping into the center from the west. The eye of the storm appeared covered by high clouds.

In Mauritius, the warnings on January 12 were changed to a tropical cyclone warning class 2. La Reunion, which lies to the southwest of Mauritius and is farther from the storm remained on Yellow pre-alert.

In less than 24 hours after it formed, Bansi strengthened from a minimal tropical storm into a major hurricane (Category 3) with maximum sustained winds. A Category three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale has sustained winds from 111 to 129 mph (96 to 112 knots/178 to 208 kph).

At 0900 UTC (4 a.m. EST) on January 12, Bansi had maximum sustained winds near 100 knots (115.1. mph/185.2 kph). Bansi was centered near 17.2 south latitude and 56.1 east longitude, about 191 nautical miles (219.8 miles/ 353.7 km) north-northwest of Port Louis, Mauritius, has tracked eastward at 7 knots (8.0 mph/12.9 kph).

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that Bansi continued to rapidly intensify as a result of passage over warm water, low vertical wind shear, and outflow aloft. A tropical cyclone needs good outflow (where winds spread out at the top of the hurricane) to maintain strength. Outflow means that air spreads out over the top of the storm assisting in its development. When outflow is weakened, the storm weakens.

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NASA's Aqua satellite spots Tropical Cyclone Bansi intensifying quickly

See NASA's 'Pillars of Creation' image

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Story highlights A 1995 image of the "Pillars of Creation" became iconic The new images give an even more spectacular view -- and new insight

The Hubble Space Telescope revisited the so-called "Pillars of Creation," which the space agency describes as "three giant columns of cold gas bathed in the scorching ultraviolet light from a cluster of young, massive stars in a small region of the Eagle Nebula, or M16."

The previous photo of these pillars, taken in 1995, went on to stand out from all the rest of NASA's space images, the agency said. "The Hubble image is so popular that it has appeared in movies and television shows, on T-shirts and pillows, and even on a postage stamp."

The old and new images, side by side

EXPAND IMAGE

In celebration of the telescope's upcoming 25th anniversary in April, Hubble returned to the pillars -- and this time with the latest high-definition tools.

The new sharper and wider image was taken "in near-infrared light, as well as visible light," NASA said. "The infrared view transforms the pillars into eerie, wispy silhouettes seen against a background of myriad stars. That's because the infrared light penetrates much of the gas and dust, except for the densest regions of the pillars. Newborn stars can be seen hidden away inside the pillars."

In 1995, the captured image gave insight into star formation. "Nebulous star-forming regions like M16 are the interstellar neon signs that say, 'We just made a bunch of massive stars here,'" said Paul Scowen of Arizona State University, who helped lead the original observations, in a post on NASA's website.

The new image "hints" that these columns "are also pillars of destruction," NASA said.

"The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars is material getting heated up and evaporating away into space," said Scowen. "We have caught these pillars at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution."

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See NASA's 'Pillars of Creation' image

NASA test fires SLS engine

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The Orion spacecraft may have had its maiden flight, but it's still waiting for the Space Launch System (SLS) booster that will send it beyond the Moon. That wait got a bit shorter on Friday as NASA test fired the RS-25 engine that will power the SLS. The first of eight hot tests, it took place at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

The RS-25 engine is best known for being the main engine for the now retired US Space Shuttle fleet. Derived from an engine originally created for the Saturn V rocket during the Apollo-era, the cryogenic RS-225 engine was notable for its robustness and recycling the design for the SLS fit in with NASA's waste-not-want-not philosophy when it came to Shuttle technology.

In this case, the RS-25 engine in the test firing is a development model of the new expendable versions of the main engines that propelled the Space Shuttle into orbit. Though the design is very similar to the Shuttle engines, the latest RS-25s are made to be cheaper one-use power plants. When completed, the SLS will use four of the new engines.

According to NASA, the January 9 firing lasted 500 seconds and was intended to provide data for inlet pressure conditions and the performance of the new version of the engine's controller unit. The latter is the computer that controls the engine through a system of valves. Its job is to carry out flight commands while returning telemetry about engine performance. In addition, it monitors and regulates the engine. For the latest version of the RS-25, the engine controller unit contains updated software and hardware to match the SLS's new avionics.

"Weve made modifications to the RS-25 to meet SLS specifications and will analyze and test a variety of conditions during the hot fire series," says Steve Wofford, manager of the SLS Liquid Engines Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "The engines for SLS will encounter colder liquid oxygen temperatures than Shuttle; greater inlet pressure due to the taller core stage liquid oxygen tank and higher vehicle acceleration; and more nozzle heating due to the four-engine configuration and their position in-plane with the SLS booster exhaust nozzles."

NASA says that further engine tests are on hold while the high pressure industrial water system on the test stand is being upgraded. When the firings resume in April, the space agency will complete eight tests with the current development engine for a total run time of 3,500 seconds. A second engine will then undergo another ten test firings for a total of 4,500 seconds.

The SLS is scheduled to fly in 2018.

The video below shows Friday's test.

Source: NASA

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NASA test fires SLS engine

NASA Jet Propulsion Lab Scientist Dies in Small Plane Crash

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A 47-year-old scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who worked on robotic systems for exploring Mars and extreme environments on Earth has died in a small plane crash in Los Angeles, officials said on Saturday.

January 10, 2015

LOS ANGELES, Jan 10 (Reuters) - A 47-year-old scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who worked on robotic systems for exploring Mars and extreme environments on Earth has died in a small plane crash in Los Angeles, officials said on Saturday.

Alberto Behar spent 23 years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he worked on instruments for the rover Curiosity which landed on Mars in 2012 and the Mars Odyssey orbiter that launched in 2001, the Pasadena, California-based institution said in a statement.

The crash involved a single-engine Lancair aircraft that went down in unknown circumstances shortly after take off from Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles on Friday, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said in an email.

A limited liability company under Behar's name was listed as an owner of the plane in an FAA registry.

Behar's work included developing robotic systems for measuring ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland with the use of submarines, ice rovers and boats, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"From his submarines that peeked under Antarctica to his boats that raced Greenland's rivers, Alberto's work enabled measurements of things we'd never known. His creativity knew few bounds," NASA headquarters scientist Thomas Wagner said in a statement.

When Behar in 2009 submerged a small camera 600 feet (183 metres) beneath an ice sheet in the Antarctic they captured images of a shrimp creature swimming beneath the ice, which surprised him and fellow researchers.

Behar, aside from working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also was a research professor at Arizona State University. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; editing by Andrew Hay)

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NASA Jet Propulsion Lab Scientist Dies in Small Plane Crash

Why NASA wants you to start dreaming

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Story highlights NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has produced vintage-style posters advertising trips to new planets Posters evoke golden age of travel from last century with classic art deco graphics and fonts Actual travel to newly discovered planets is unlikely for now as they're trillions of miles away

It does, after all, have two suns.

OK, so a long weekend visiting a planet 1,200 trillion miles away, may not be a realistic prospect just yet, but that hasn't stopped scientists at NASA from dreaming.

To mark the exciting discovery of a slew of potentially distant habitable worlds by its Kepler space observatory, the U.S. space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology has created a series of posters advertising imaginary vacations to some of them.

Rendered in the retro style of classic travel billboards of the 1920s, '30s and '40s, the posters depict these distant worlds as pleasurable destinations.

The image for Kepler 16-b -- previously compared to the fictional "Star Wars" planet of Tatooine because of its dual suns -- shows a space-suited figure basking in the light from the twin orbs overhead.

"Relax on Kepler 16-b," the poster says. "The land of two suns ... Where your shadow always has company."

Although the planet is depicted as a rocky, terrestrial world, NASA says it could also be a gas giant like Saturn with freezing temperatures that would make it hostile to known lifeforms.

A second poster shows an astronaut free-falling to experience the powerful gravity over HD 40307g, a "Super Earth" 44 light years -- or 264 trillion miles -- away.

Another sunny day on Kepler-16b.

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Why NASA wants you to start dreaming


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