#launch system

[nocternalrandomness]

NASA's Space Launch System

[mielplante]

late night talking with the king 🍂

[without-ado]

Excess Fuel from SpaceX Falcon 9 creating a spiral vortex

l JayinKyiv (Ukraine) l Shu (U.K) l Nick Bull (U.K)

[sunmoonclouds]

my contribution to getting shadowpeach bio parents au trending @kyri45

[nasa]

ALT: This video shows blades of grass moving in the wind on a beautiful day at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. In the background, we see the 212-foot-core stage for the powerful SLS (Space Launch System) rocket used for Artemis I. The camera ascends, revealing the core stage next to a shimmering body of water as technicians lead it towards NASA’s Pegasus barge. Credit: NASA

The SLS (Space Launch System) Core Stage by Numbers

Technicians with NASA and SLS core stage lead contractor Boeing, along with RS-25 engines lead contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company, are nearing a major milestone for the Artemis II mission. The SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s core stage for Artemis II is fully assembled and will soon be shipped via barge from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once there, it will be prepped for stacking and launch activities.

Get to know the core stage – by the numbers.

Standing 212 feet tall and measuring 27.6 feet in diameter, the SLS core stage is the largest rocket stage NASA has ever built. Due to its size, the hardware must be shipped aboard NASA’s Pegasus barge.

900 miles

Once loaded, the barge – which was updated to accommodate the giant core stage -- will travel 900 miles to Florida across inland and ocean waterways. Once at Kennedy, teams with our Exploration Ground Systems team will complete checkouts for the core stage prior to stacking preparations.

18 Miles + 500 Sensors

As impressive as the core stage is on the outside, it’s also incredible on the inside. The “brains” of the rocket consist of three flight computers and special avionics systems that tell the rocket what to do. This is linked to 18 miles of cabling and more than 500 sensors and systems to help feed fuel and steer the four RS-25 engines.

8.8 million

Speaking of engines… Our SLS Moon rocket generates approximately 8.8 million pounds of thrust at launch. Two million pounds come from the four powerful RS-25 engines at the base of the core stage, while each of the two solid rocket boosters produces a maximum thrust of 3.6 million pounds. Together, the engines and boosters will help launch a crew of four Artemis astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft beyond Earth orbit to venture around the Moon.

733,000 Gallons

Achieving the powerful thrust required at launch calls for a large amount of fuel - 733,000 gallons, to be precise. The stage has two huge propellant tanks that hold the super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that make the rocket “go.” A new liquid hydrogen storage sphere has recently been built at Kennedy, which can store 1.25 million gallons of liquid hydrogen.

Four

The number four doesn’t just apply to the RS-25 engines. It’s also the number of astronauts who will fly inside our Orion spacecraft atop our SLS rocket for the first crewed Artemis mission. When NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover along with CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen launch, they will be the first astronauts returning to the Moon in more than 50 years.

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[timberwind]

second generation saturnian

[lonestarflight]

"NASA Stennis Teams Install New Production RS-25 Engine for Upcoming Hot Fire

NASA marked a key milestone Feb. 18 with installation of RS-25 engine No. E20001, the first new production engine to help power the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket on future Artemis missions to the Moon.

The engine, built by lead SLS engines contractor L3Harris (formerly Aerojet Rocketdyne), was installed on the Fred Haise Test Stand in preparation for acceptance testing next month. It represents the first of 24 new flight engines being built for SLS flights, beginning with Artemis V.

In this image, teams at NASA Stennis deliver, lift, and install the first new production RS-25 engine on the Fred Haise Test Stand on Feb. 18."

Credit: NASA/Danny Nowlin

Date: February 18, 2025

Posted on Flickr by "NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center": link

[emaadsidiki]

NASA ∼ SLS ∼ NASM 🌎🚀🛰️🌌👨‍🚀

[cooloddball]

So people weren’t kidding when they said both Max and Charles deleted their highlights? Literally the only highlight up on his insta account is Leo’s. Everything else is gone.

yes. it is very strange indeed.

i thought maybe it’s a glitch in the system but does the glitch just apply to them?

like maybe they just archived them (which you can do) but isn’t peculiar that they would archive them at the same time? and wouldn’t they just archive specific ones?

i mean charles’ monza and monaco wins as well max’s wdc wins highlights are gone too?

honestly i’m not a conspiracy theorist (only as a joke) but if this isn’t a glitch it’s strange that their highlights disappeared at the same time.

for posterity:

has this happened to anyone else or just them?

[uncanny-tranny]

I know for a fact I've talked about the golden records, but I don't care because here is a sample of some of my favourite greetings on those discs

There is something so vulnerable, precious, and human about sending up pieces of our hearts into space. Even when we know that there may not be anybody out there to hear us, we are still whispering to whomever might listen how much we love them, how much we want to connect. No matter how small the chance is, we're taking it to say that love is real, that we are real.

How is that not something to be in awe over?

[gemini-enthusiast]

NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), viewed from the Kennedy Space Center bus tour. Built for the Apollo program to complete the assembly of the Saturn V rockets, the building now plays host to the Artemis program's Space Launch System.

[askzloyxp]

Though easily disabled, I am very ticked by NVDIA's brilliant 'automatically optimize games' setting, which I choose to read as

"Do you want your videogame vision to be randomly messed with by a malicious ghost?"

[namedr]

PROJECTILE LAUNCHER

[without-ado]

Vulcan at sunrise l John Kraus

[liramic]

My Danmei Deskmats Kickstarter is still live! And all the deskmat designs including Hualian, Bingqiu, and Xicheng have already been unlocked so any of them can be chosen now! The campaign ends in 3 days at 3/31 11:59 EST so it's the last couple days to pledge if you're interested~

Danmei Deskmats: TGCF and SVSSS Deskmats by Liramic — Kickstarter

I also got some sample pictures from my manu of the deskmats

[nasa]

Moonbound: One Year Since Artemis I

On this day last year, the Artemis I rocket and spacecraft lit up the sky and embarked on the revolutionary mission to the Moon and back. The first integrated flight test of the rocket and spacecraft continued for 25.5 days, validating NASA’s deep exploration systems and setting the stage for humanity’s return to the lunar surface.

On Nov. 16, 2022, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket met or exceeded all expectations during its debut launch on Artemis I. The twin solid rocket booster motors responsible for producing more than 7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff reached their performance target, helping SLS and the Orion spacecraft reach a speed of about 4,000 mph in just over two minutes before the boosters separated.

Quite a few payloads caught a ride aboard the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis I mission: In addition to a number of small scientific satellites called CubeSats, a manikin named Commander Moonikin Campos sat in the commander’s seat. A Snoopy doll served as a zero-gravity indicator — something that floats inside the spacecraft to demonstrate microgravity. 

During the mission, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 miles of the lunar surface. At its farthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles from our home planet, more than 1,000 times farther than where the International Space Station orbits Earth. This surpassed the record for distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans, previously set during Apollo 13.

The Orion spacecraft arrived back home to planet Earth on Dec. 11, 2022. During re-entry, Orion endured temperatures about half as hot as the surface of the Sun at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Within about 20 minutes, Orion slowed from nearly 25,000 mph to about 20 mph for its parachute-assisted splashdown. 

Recovery teams successfully retrieved the spacecraft and delivered it back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for de-servicing operations, which included removing the payloads (like Snoopy and Commander Moonikin Campos) and analyzing the heat shield.  

With the Artemis I mission under our belt, we look ahead to Artemis II — our first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years. Four astronauts will fly around the Moon inside Orion, practicing piloting the spacecraft and validating the spacecraft’s life support systems. The Artemis II crew includes: NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen. 

As we look ahead to Artemis II, we build upon the incredible success of the Artemis I mission and recognize the hard work and achievements of the entire Artemis team. Go Artemis!

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