NASA and Boeing plan to conduct a second hot-firing test of the SLS super-heavy launch vehicle this Thursday French time. For now, the Artemis I mission is still scheduled to launch around the Moon in November.
After the failure of the first static firing test of the SLS booster, the new super-heavy launch vehicle responsible for sending humans to the Moon, NASA plans to operate a second test this Thursday at 23:00 GMT (midnight French time). However, this schedule is not set in stone. John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Alabama, pointed out that the test could come an hour earlier.
For this test, it will be a question of burning the four main engines no longer for eight minutes, but for at least four minutes. Enough to obtain additional data to certify the first stage of this huge rocket. On February 16, the flight control center reported a major component failure with the vehicle's fourth engine about fifty seconds into the test.
Note that this new test comes as much of the southern United States has just suffered a severe winter storm. Over the past few days, engineers have done what they can to protect the structure despite the freezing temperatures.
After this test, NASA personnel will have thirty days to put this booster and the rocket engines back to "new" before transferring everything to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the SLS can be finished assembling (second stage + Orion capsule). Once this phase is complete, a few more tests will be scheduled before launch.
For now, it is still planned that the Artemis I mission – during which an unmanned Orion capsule will circle the Moon before returning to Earth – will be launched in November . That said, Tom Whitmeyer, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, doesn't believe it too much. In addition to technical delays, weather conditions will also be a determining factor. In the meantime, he promised that NASA will continue to provide updates on the targeted launch date.
