posted September 14, 2011 09:02 AM               

Space Launch System (SLS)
NASA Announces Design for New Deep Space Exploration System

NASA is ready to move forward with the development of the Space Launch System — an advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new national capability for human exploration beyond Earth's orbit. The Space Launch System will give the nation a safe, affordable and sustainable means of reaching beyond our current limits and opening up new discoveries from the unique vantage point of space.

The Space Launch System, or SLS, will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle [MPCV], as well as important cargo, equipment and science experiments to Earth's orbit and destinations beyond. Additionally, the SLS will serve as a back up for commercial and international partner transportation services to the International Space Station.

"This launch system will create good-paying American jobs, ensure continued U.S. leadership in space, and inspire millions around the world," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "President Obama challenged us to be bold and dream big, and that's exactly what we are doing at NASA. While I was proud to fly on the space shuttle, kids today can now dream of one day walking on Mars."

The SLS rocket will incorporate technological investments from the space shuttle program and the Constellation program in order to take advantage of proven hardware and cutting-edge tooling and manufacturing technology that will significantly reduce development and operations costs.

It will use a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propulsion system, which will include the RS-25D/E from the space shuttle program for the core stage and the J-2X engine for the upper stage. SLS will also use solid rocket boosters for the initial development flights, while follow-on boosters will be competed based on performance requirements and affordability considerations.

The SLS will have an initial lift capacity of 70 metric tons (mT) and will be evolvable to 130 mT. The first developmental flight, or mission, is targeted for the end of 2017.

This specific architecture was selected, largely because it utilizes an evolvable development approach, which allows NASA to address high-cost development activities early on in the program and take advantage of higher buying power before inflation erodes the available funding of a fixed budget. This architecture also enables NASA to leverage existing capabilities and lower development costs by using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for both the core and upper stages.

Additionally, this architecture provides a modular launch vehicle that can be configured for specific mission needs using a variation of common elements. NASA may not need to lift 130 mT for each mission and the flexibility of this modular architecture allows the agency to use different core stage, upper stage, and first-stage booster combinations to achieve the most efficient launch vehicle for the desired mission.

"NASA has been making steady progress toward realizing the president's goal of deep space exploration, while doing so in a more affordable way," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. "We have been driving down the costs on the Space Launch System and Orion contracts by adopting new ways of doing business and project hundreds of millions of dollars of savings each year."

The Space Launch System will be NASA's first exploration-class vehicle since the Saturn V took American astronauts to the moon over 40 years ago. With its superior lift capability, the SLS will expand our reach in the solar system and allow us to explore cis-lunar space, near-Earth asteroids, Mars and its moons and beyond. We will learn more about how the solar system formed, where Earth' water and organics originated and how life might be sustained in places far from our Earth's atmosphere and expand the boundaries of human exploration. These discoveries will change the way we understand ourselves, our planet, and its place in the universe.

See here for discussion of NASA's heavy-lift launch vehicle development efforts.

posted September 16, 2011 03:53 PM               

Space Launch System (SLS)

		SLS Initial Lift Capability		SLS Evolved Lift Capability
Weight:		5.5 million pounds		6.5 million pounds
Height:		320 feet		400 feet
Payload:		70 metric tons (154,000 lbs)		130 metric tons (286,000 lbs)
Thrust at liftoff:		8.4 million pounds (10 percent more than Saturn V)		9.2 million pounds (20 percent more than Saturn V)

See here for discussion of NASA's heavy-lift launch vehicle development efforts.

posted September 23, 2011 02:36 PM               

NASA posts Space Launch System acquisition overview

NASA has released the acquisition overview for the Space Launch System (SLS). SLS is an entirely new advanced, heavy-lift launch vehicle that will take the agency's astronauts farther into space than ever before, create high-quality jobs here at home and provide the cornerstone for America's future human space exploration efforts.

This new heavy-lift rocket combined with the Orion crew capsule will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit and will back up commercial and international partner transportation services to the International Space Station. It will provide a fresh focus on new technologies and is key to implementing the plan laid out by President Obama and Congress in the bipartisan 2010 NASA Authorization Act, which the president signed last year.

The booster will be America's most powerful since the Saturn V rocket that carried Apollo astronauts to the moon and will launch humans to places no one has gone before. The rocket will give the nation a safe, affordable and sustainable means of reaching beyond our current range of space exploration. It will open new discoveries from unique vantage points and destinations far from Earth.

The SLS will carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and its astronaut crew, cargo, equipment and science experiments to an asteroid by the middle of the next decade and then to Mars.

The specific architecture was selected after analysis of the combination of technologies that would effectively meet the SLS capability requirements. The architecture also uses an evolvable development approach. This type of approach allows NASA to address high-cost development activities early on in the program while taking advantage of higher buying power before inflation erodes the available funding in a fixed budget.

posted March 14, 2012 05:10 PM               

NASA Sub-Scale Solid-Rocket Motor Tests Material for Space Launch System

A sub-scale solid rocket motor designed to mimic NASA's Space Launch System, or SLS, booster design successfully was tested today by engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The 20-second firing tested new insulation materials on the 24-inch-diameter, 109-inch-long motor. The motor is a scaled down, low-cost replica of the solid rocket motors that will boost SLS off the launch pad.

Marshall is leading the design and development of the SLS on behalf of the agency. The new heavy-lift launch vehicle will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.

The test will help engineers develop and evaluate analytical models and skills to assess future full-scale SLS solid rocket motor tests. The next full-scale test, Qualification Motor-1 (QM-1), is targeted for spring 2013. Two five-segment solid rocket motors, the world's largest at 154-foot-long and 12-foot diameter, will be used in the first two 70-metric-ton capability flights of SLS.

Previous ground tests of the motors included carbon insulation to protect the rocket's nozzle from the harsh environment and 5000-degree temperatures to which it is exposed. QM-1 will include a new insulation material, provided by a new vendor, to line the motor's nozzle.

"Test firing small motors at Marshall provides a quick, affordable and effective way to evaluate the new nozzle liner's performance," said Scott Ringel, an engineer at Marshall and the design lead for this test. "We have sophisticated analytic and computer modeling tools that tell us whether the new nozzle insulation will perform well, but nothing gives us better confidence than a hot-fire test."

The test also includes several secondary objectives. The team introduced an intentional defect in the propellant with a tool designed to create a specific flaw size. By measuring the temperature inside the motor at the flaw location, the team hopes to gain a better understanding for the propellant's margin for error. Test data also will help the team better understand acoustics and vibrations resulting from the rocket motor's plume.

In addition, NASA's Engineering and Safety Center will use test data to measure a solid rocket motor's plume and how it reacts to certain materials.

Engineers from Marshall's Engineering Directorate designed the test motor with support from ATK Aerospace Systems of Huntsville, Ala. ATK of Brigham City, Utah, the prime contractor for the SLS booster, is responsible for designing and testing the SLS five-segment solid rocket motor.

posted April 03, 2012 10:04 AM               

Space Launch System Program Completes Step One of Combined Milestone Reviews

America's next heavy-lift launch vehicle — the Space Launch System — is one step closer to its first launch in 2017, following the successful completion of the first phase of a combined set of milestone reviews.

The SLS Program has completed step one in a combined System Requirements Review and System Definition Review — both extensive NASA-led reviews that set requirements to further narrow the scope of the system design and evaluate the vehicle concept based on top-level program requirements. The reviews include setting launch vehicle requirements for crew safety and interfacing with the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle to carry it to deep space as well as the ground operations and launch facilities at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Additionally, the reviews set cost and schedule requirements to provide on-time development.

"It's exciting to see how far this program has come in such a short time," said Todd May, SLS program manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "Completion of this first step of reviews moves the nation's first deep space rocket from concept development to preliminary design."

The milestone reviews are two in a series of life-cycle reviews advancing the vehicle from concept design to flight readiness. Step one included a focused technical review of the program requirements with information on cost, schedule and risk. A standing review board comprised of technical experts from across the agency evaluated SLS program documents including vehicle requirements, specifications, plans, studies and reports. The board ensured specific criteria were met and confirmed that requirements are complete, validated and responsive to mission requirements.

The combination of the two reviews as well as safety and reliability analyses is a fundamentally different way of conducting program reviews. The SLS team is streamlining processes to provide a safe, affordable and sustainable rocket.

"This checkpoint gives us a mature understanding of the requirements, solidifies the vehicle concept design will meet all the requirements of the program and mission and signals that SLS is ready to begin engineering design activities," added May. "We're moving forward to deliver a new national capability to get America exploring space again."

Step two, which will begin in early summer, will include an integrated assessment of the technical and programmatic components fully evaluating cost, schedule and risk involved with the program.

posted April 03, 2012 10:08 AM               

NASA and ATK complete milestone in the development of the booster for the country's next deep space exploration system

NASA and ATK successfully completed the first test for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) booster program March 28 at ATK's Promontory, Utah, test facility. This demonstration was a key avionics and controls test designated Flight Control Test 1 and included a fully integrated flight heritage thrust vector control (TVC) system with the new SLS booster avionics subsystem.

The avionics subsystem is responsible for booster ignition, nozzle steering and booster separation. This test will specifically focus on the avionics subsystem's ability to start-up, monitor, steer and shut down an SLS booster nozzle TVC system.

This test marks the first time a new avionics subsystem interfaced with and controlled a previously developed TVC system, performing an SLS launch simulation.

The avionics subsystem is responsible for commanding the vectoring of the booster's nozzles during flight. In addition to a new avionics subsystem, the test included new electronic ground support equipment which monitored and coordinated activities between the test facilities, avionics subsystem, and TVC system.

This test effort is one in a series of tests to reduce risk and validate the avionics subsystem design early in development life cycle.

"The test was a great milestone for ATK and NASA's SLS program," said Fred Brasfield, ATK's vice president, Next-Generation Booster. "The results not only validate the system, but also our streamlining efforts to produce a product that is robust, sustainable and affordable."

Affordability was designed in from the onset of developing a new avionics subsystem. From a common chassis design, to utilization of 14 common circuit cards, to standardization of cable designs, to single piece process flow — the company has incorporated lean manufacturing and continuous improvement principles in the avionics design.

"This successful test of the Flight Control System is a big step forward for NASA's Space Launch System, an advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new national capability for human exploration beyond Earth's orbit," said Brasfield.

Two additional tests are planned for the avionics and controls system, culminating in supporting the first qualification test of the five segment motor which is currently scheduled for spring 2013.

ATK is an aerospace, defense, and commercial products company with operations in 22 states, Puerto Rico, and internationally.