posted 09-05-2013 04:55 PM               

The Space Launch System (SLS) will be the next heavy-lift launch vehicle for the National Aeronautics and Space Admin. (NASA, Washington D.C.). Composites have been chosen for both the launch vehicle structures and tooling because they offer performance and cost advantages over metals.

As part of a three-year program to develop and demonstrate composite tooling and fabrication technology, Janicki Industries (Sedro-Woolley, Wash.) began working with NASA in 2010 to design tooling for a 1/6th-arc SLS fairing segment. Each segment measures 8.5m by 5.5m (28 ft by 18 ft), and six of them will be assembled to form the barrel section of the payload fairing for the SLS launch vehicle. NASA's objective was to demonstrate that cost-effective production of a lightweight composite structure is possible. "Our capabilities lined up well with NASA's goals in this program," explains Matt Robson, project manager at Janicki, "including out-of-autoclave processing, fabrication of large-scale tooling and pioneering of new processes to meet unique project demands."

posted 02-09-2014 07:52 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by spacefan JC:
...the Liberty Launch Vehicle, a five segment SRB first stage, and the Ariane cryogenic as the second stage.

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posted 02-09-2014 09:32 AM               

At last update, NASA does not plan to recover the boosters used with the Space Launch System as a cost saving measure.

posted 08-27-2014 02:18 PM               

[Key Decision Point-C] provides a development cost baseline for the 70-metric ton version of the SLS of $7.021 billion from February 2014 through the first launch and a launch readiness schedule based on an initial SLS flight no later than November 2018.

"We will keep the teams working toward a more ambitious readiness date, but will be ready no later than November 2018," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

posted 09-11-2014 09:20 PM               

There were similar calls about the Moon and the Saturn V. As to vehicle numbers: The original number of Saturn V ordered/manifested was ten and we did the landing in five. This left us with extras for exploration.

posted 05-03-2015 10:32 PM               

Language in the authorization bill would direct NASA to “conduct a well-publicized competition among students in elementary and secondary schools to name the elements of the administration’s exploration program.”

NASA should give a name to the agency’s entire exploration program, including the SLS, Orion spacecraft and future missions. The bill also directs NASA to rename the SLS itself.

An identical section was included in a previous version of an authorization bill that passed the House in February, and NASA officials have had internal discussions of renaming the Space Launch System.

posted 05-04-2015 03:52 PM            

...conduct a well-publicized competition among students in elementary and secondary schools to name the elements of the administration’s exploration program... including the SLS, Orion spacecraft and future missions.

posted 05-04-2015 04:16 PM               

Personally, I think this launch system will be toast by the mid to latter 2020's as heavy lift vehicles provided by SpaceX etc. will be much cheaper.

posted 05-05-2015 06:18 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by SkyMan1958:
I think it's appropriate that elementary grade students name it, as they will be middle aged by the time the thing actually flies more than 250,000 miles from the Earth.

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posted 05-06-2015 01:29 PM               

Take the NASA Mars rover that landed in 1997. Originally designated Microrover Flight Experiment (MFEX), an essay contest was begun to find a new name. The winner: a 12 year-old chose the name 'Sojourner,' after African-American abolitionist and woman's rights activist Sojourner Truth. Her name, appropriately, means 'traveler.'

posted 09-09-2015 07:14 PM               

"Saturn Five," I guess, wasn't overly cool either.

posted 10-24-2015 03:15 PM               

For the first time in almost 40 years, a NASA human-rated rocket has completed all steps needed to clear a critical design review (CDR). The agency's Space Launch System (SLS) is the first vehicle designed to meet the challenges of the journey to Mars and the first exploration class rocket since the Saturn V.

...also as part of the CDR, the program concluded the core stage of the rocket and Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter will remain orange, the natural color of the insulation that will cover those elements, instead of painted white.

posted 10-24-2015 03:19 PM               

The color scheme though, offers a visual hook by which to report the completion of the CDR.

posted 12-05-2015 05:46 PM            

Obviously the external tank of the space shuttle needed the foam to prevent the build-up of ice (which would have fallen on the orbiter, causing tile-losses). But the Saturn V didn't need insulation foam and, like the Saturn V, there is no orbiter strapped to the side of the SLS core.

posted 12-05-2015 06:13 PM               

The primary purpose of the foam was/is to maintain the cryogenic temperatures inside the tanks needed to keep the hydrogen and oxygen liquid.

Ice formation was a concern during shuttle, but wasn't the only or driving need for the foam insulation. Here is how NASA described the foam for the shuttle external tank:

The closed-cell foam used on the tank was developed to keep the propellants that fuel the shuttle's three Main Engines at optimum temperature. It keeps the shuttle's liquid hydrogen fuel at minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit and the liquid oxygen tank at near minus 297 degrees Fahrenheit — even as the tank sits under the hot Florida sun — while preventing a buildup of ice on the outside of the tank.

posted 05-10-2017 04:36 PM               

Kim Henry, a spokesperson for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, said May 10 that NASA and Boeing, the prime contractor for the SLS core stage, have established independent investigation teams to review an incident at Michoud one week earlier involving the rear dome of a liquid oxygen qualification tank.

...The agency didn't provide additional details about the incident, which took place in the Vertical Assembly Center at Michoud, used to weld large components of the SLS. The Vertical Assembly Center was shut down when the incident took place, Henry said. "NASA is evaluating next steps to safely resume operations."

The damage was limited to the one dome section of the tank, which was not yet welded to the rest of the tank. "Assessments are ongoing to determine the extent of the damage," she said.

posted 08-30-2017 09:25 AM               

Animation depicting NASA’s Space Launch System, the world's most powerful rocket for a new era of human exploration in deep space. Black-and-white checkerboard targets on the exterior of the SLS heavy-lift rocket will enable photogrammetrists to measure critical distances during spaceflight, including booster separation from the core stage.

posted 11-10-2017 03:08 PM               

Isn't it sad that it's going on about seven years to design, build and launch the SLS? The Saturn V took about six years to do the same thing.

Now, I'm sure the budget has something to do with this problem, as I understand it, but we're looking at possibly more than 10 years before it finally launches.

I realize that there is brand new technology being developed to build this thing but the Apollo engineers and technicians never had built something of this magnitude along with the technology that also had to be developed.

Oh, by the way, they did all this with slide rules and maybe very basic computers.