Latest news with #Promontory
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA video of moon rocket test shows something just went seriously wrong
A test of a new rocket motor for NASA's future moon missions went awry this week, with the full-size booster hurling a powerful blaze and scattering debris. Northrop Grumman, lead contractor for the booster, conducted the two-minute ground test of the solid rocket motor, which was strapped down sideways. For the first 1.5 minutes, the motor — known as NASA's Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension, or BOLE — seemed to be working fine. Seconds later, debris blew out of the nozzle and flames rippled through the long exhaust plume. The 156-foot booster kept firing through the remainder of the test, and no one was hurt. NASA's livestream, which you can watch below, caught the incident, starting at about 22 minutes and 17 seconds into the video. Engineers didn't immediately acknowledge the issue during that broadcast, apart from one controller uttering "Whoa," followed by an audible gasp. The company later confirmed a problem occurred late in the burn, though representatives didn't elaborate on what went wrong. The anomaly, which took place at a Northrop Grumman test facility in Promontory, Utah, raises questions about the hardware that could one day send astronauts into space — and potentially to Mars. "As a new design, and the largest segmented solid rocket booster ever built, this test provides us with valuable data to iterate our design for future developments," said Jim Kalberer, Northrop Grumman's vice president of propulsion systems, in a statement. SEE ALSO: Webb telescope smashed a record with the planet it just discovered A single BOLE booster produces more than 4 million pounds of thrust. Credit: Northrop Grumman The BOLE motor is a major redesign of the ones used on NASA's Space Launch System, or SLS, the rocket built to carry astronauts to the moon under the Artemis program. It swaps out old parts with lightweight materials and new fuel, giving it more thrust and allowing the rocket to haul heavier loads. The boosters for the first eight flights of Artemis repurpose the steel booster cases and other parts from the Space Shuttle program. Beginning with Artemis IX, the SLS rocket, sometimes dubbed the mega moon rocket, is supposed to use the BOLE. The plan is for two of them to flank either side of the rocket. "In order to save cost and schedule, we implemented the Shuttle's proven heritage hardware into our design, but this is being depleted as the Artemis program progresses," said Julia Khodabandeh, NASA's deputy manager for the SLS booster element office. "It's just not practical to restart the manufacturing from that 1970s era." This was the first demonstration test of the enhanced five-segment solid rocket motor. That single booster produced more than 4 million pounds of thrust, said Dave Reynolds, NASA's SLS booster subsystems manager. "You can see from the side of the mountain up there," Reynolds said afterward, "it's still feeling the effects of that test." The purpose of the demonstration was to test the limits of the motor's design, understand the stress and strain on different materials, and see if the motor's components could withstand extreme conditions. The two-minute test mimics the time a booster would fire during a real launch. Northrop Grumman officials said the data from the BOLE test will help improve the design. The new boosters are not expected to fly until at least the late 2030s, and it's unclear whether they ever will. Proposed budget cuts for NASA would mean SLS production ceases after Artemis III, the first human moon landing since Apollo 17. That mission has been postponed until 2027 at the earliest. The White House has said it would like to see the space agency focus instead on using commercial systems. Lawmakers are still debating how many more SLS launches, about $4.1 billion each, to fund.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Nozzle blows off rocket booster during test for NASA's Artemis program (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An upgraded version of one of the solid rocket boosters being used for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) experienced an anomaly during a test June 26. The Demonstration Motor-1 (DM-1) Static Test took place at Northrop Grumman's facility in Promontory, Utah, simulating a launch-duration burn lasting about two minutes. It was the first demonstration of Grumman's Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) upgrade, an enhanced five-segmented motor designed with greater lifting power for later versions of SLS. Shortly after the spokesperson on Grumman's recording marks T+100 seconds into the test, an outburst of flames can be seen erupting form the top of the engine nozzle. A few seconds later, as another spokesperson announces, "activate aft deluge," an even larger burst comes from the rocket's exhaust, blowing nearby debris into the flames and around the test site. "Whoa," one of the test operators said as burn continued, before audibly gasping. Beyond that in-the-moment reaction, though, the anomaly was not acknowledged during the remainder of the test, which seemed to conclude as planned. "While the motor appeared to perform well through the most harsh environments of the test, we observed an anomaly near the end of the two-plus minute burn. As a new design, and the largest segmented solid rocket booster ever built, this test provides us with valuable data to iterate our design for future developments," Jim Kalberer, Grumman's vice president of propulsion systems, said in a statement. SLS, NASA's rocket supporting the agency's Artemis program, was designed on the foundation of legacy systems used during the space shuttle era. SLS's core stage fuel tank is an augmented version of the one used to launch space shuttles, and the same RS-25 engines responsible for launching the space shuttles are launching to space again on SLS missions. The segments from the shuttle's solid rocket boosters are also flying again, too. Northrop Grumman supported Artemis 1, and will support Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 with shuttle-era hardware, before transitioning to newer hardware for Artemis 4 through Artemis 8. The company's BOLE engines aren't slated to be introduced for launch until Artemis 9, on the SLS Block 2. The upgraded BOLE engines include improved, newly-fabricated parts replacing those no longer in production, carbon fiber composite casings and updated propellant efficiencies that increase the booster's performance more than 10 percent compared to the solid rocket engines being used on earlier SLS launches. Thursday's DM-1 BOLE test included more than 700 points of data collection throughout the booster, which produced over 4 million pounds of thrust, according to Northrop Grumman. Whether the BOLE design will ever fly, however, is far from certain. NASA's proposed budget for 2026 calls for the cancelation of the SLS rocket following Artemis 3.
CNA
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNA
More people can take part in National Day celebrations at Promontory @ Marina Bay
More Singaporeans will take part in the National Day celebrations at the Promontory @ Marina Bay. This is because of an additional preview show this year. Up to 20,000 attendees are expected to turn up for the two preview shows and on National Day. For the first time, the live show at the Padang will be expanded to Marina Bay.
