NASA Test Fires Space
Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motor
(1 May 2008) NASA's Space Shuttle
Program on Thursday successfully conducted a test firing of a space shuttle
reusable solid rocket motor in Utah.
The test firing of Flight
Verification Motor 2 evaluated possible performance changes as motors age.
Space shuttle solid rocket motors are certified for flight for five years from
their date of manufacture. At more than seven years of age, the four-segment
motor tested Thursday is the oldest ever fired. The test further substantiates
the certification that was established by NASA at the beginning of the shuttle
program.
The test also provided important information for continued
launches of the shuttle and development of the Ares I rocket, a key component
of NASA's Constellation Program that will launch the Orion crew vehicle on
missions to the moon.
The test measured external sound, or acoustics, to
help define motor-generated external loads for Ares I. This valuable data will
assist in the final design of the launch structure for Ares I rockets by
engineers from NASA and ATK Launch Systems Group of Promontory,
Utah.
Preliminary indications are that all test objectives were met.
After final test data are analysed, results for each objective will be
published later this year.
"This test is an example of the aggressive
testing program NASA pursues to assure flight safety," said David Beaman,
manager of the Reusable Solid Rocket Booster Project office at NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "It also allows us to gather
information on how motors with different ages perform."
The test
provided a unique opportunity to compare performance data from two motors of
different ages to validate midlife and full-life certification of their
components. The segments tested Thursday were originally stacked at NASA's
Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2002 and returned to Utah in 2004. As a
result of this test, engineers will better understand the effects of ageing and
exposure to different climates for extended periods of time.
Each space
shuttle launch requires the power of two reusable solid rocket booster motors
to lift the 4.5-million-pound shuttle vehicle. They burn for approximately 123
seconds and generate an average thrust of 2.6 million pounds. In Thursday's
test, the motor generated 3.3 million pounds maximum thrust for two minutes,
which is the same time each reusable solid rocket motor burns during a space
shuttle launch.
The space shuttle reusable solid rocket motor is the
largest ever to fly. It is the only solid rocket motor rated for human flight
and the first designed for reuse. Two motors provide 90 percent of the thrust
needed to launch the space shuttle.
The Reusable Solid Rocket Booster
Project Office manages the tests. ATK Launch Systems Group, a unit of Alliant
Techsystems Inc., manufactures space shuttle solid rocket
motors.
(source: NASA)
