ssc_photo_4603_large.jpg Teams at NASA’s Stennis Space Center will perform a hot fire test of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage on Jan. 16, 2021. This image shows liquid hydrogen being safely vented and burned as it naturally warms and boils off during a rehearsal of a countdown to hot fire of the stage’s engines on Dec 20, 2020. Credits: NASA

NASA is targeting a two-hour test window that opens at 5 p.m. EST Saturday, Jan. 16, for the hot fire test of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage at the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Live coverage will begin at 4:20 p.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website, followed by a post-test briefing approximately two hours after the test concludes.

Media may submit questions during the post-test briefing by emailing hq-heo-pao@mail.nasa.gov.

The hot fire is the eighth and final test of the Green Run series to ensure the core stage of the SLS rocket is ready to launch Artemis missions to the Moon, beginning with Artemis I. The core stage includes the liquid hydrogen tank and liquid oxygen tank, four RS-25 engines, and the computers, electronics, and avionics that serve as the “brains” of the rocket. During the test, engineers will power up all the core stage systems, load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic, or supercold, propellant into the tanks, and fire all four engines at the same time to simulate the stage’s operation during launch, generating 1.6 million pounds of thrust.

The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will test the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon. Under the Artemis program, NASA is working to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024.

For more information about the Green Run test series, visit:
 

https://www.nasa.gov/artemisprogram/greenrun

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Press Contacts

Kathryn Hambleton
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
kathryn.hambleton@nasa.gov

Tracy McMahan / Ray Osorio
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
tracy.mcmahan@nasa.gov / ramon.j.osorio@nasa.gov

Valerie Buckingham / Calvin Thompson
Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, Miss.
228-688-3898 / 228-363-5499
valerie.d.buckingham@nasa.gov / calvin.l.thompson@nasa.gov

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