Northrop Grumman successfully tests SLS solid rocket booster
Northrop Grumman yesterday successfully test fired a solid rocket booster to confirm its design for use on NASA’s long-delayed and overbudget SLS rocket.
The test, completed at the T97 test area at Northrop Grumman‘s facility in Promontory, Utah, took place on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, at 1:05 PM Mountain Daylight Time (19:05 UTC). A single five-segment SLS solid rocket motor with a thrust of up to 3.6 million pounds was ignited, and burned for approximately two minutes.
The booster is an expanded version of the solid rocket boosters used on the space shuttle, with five segments instead of four, and in fact will use previously flown segments from past shuttle launches. Since this booster will not be recovered, these launches will be the last time those segments fly.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Northrop Grumman yesterday successfully test fired a solid rocket booster to confirm its design for use on NASA’s long-delayed and overbudget SLS rocket.
The test, completed at the T97 test area at Northrop Grumman‘s facility in Promontory, Utah, took place on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, at 1:05 PM Mountain Daylight Time (19:05 UTC). A single five-segment SLS solid rocket motor with a thrust of up to 3.6 million pounds was ignited, and burned for approximately two minutes.
The booster is an expanded version of the solid rocket boosters used on the space shuttle, with five segments instead of four, and in fact will use previously flown segments from past shuttle launches. Since this booster will not be recovered, these launches will be the last time those segments fly.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Ah yes, more waste of shuttle hardware. So not only are they destroying four shuttle engines per launch of this albatross, they are also destroying the SRB’s? That’s actually news to me, but then again I should be surprised by such waste. Now I know we’re not building shuttle engines anymore, so when we use up those engines, that’s it right? We just move on to the next bloated, government run pork project? Or will they replace the SSME’s with something else to give the chosen manufacturer it’s cut of the pork, all while keeping ATK in business making giant solid rocket motors? Apologies for the harsh tone but I think it’s warranted, especially after finding out that NASA isn’t even attempting to recover the SRB’s, something they were originally designed to do. Guess I should be happy this thing will only fly once every four years or what ever their ridiculous schedule was.
Gealon,
You asked: “Now I know we’re not building shuttle engines anymore, so when we use up those engines, that’s it right? We just move on to the next bloated, government run pork project? Or will they replace the SSME’s with something else to give the chosen manufacturer”
Fortunately, NASA anticipated this problem, so they have ordered more SSMEs. In addition, because they are now expendable, NASA has paid for a redesign to remove the ability for reuse so that they can save money on each engine. The unit price of each engine is now higher than the price of the reusable engines. Good to know that our money is going for a good purpose.
“it’s cut of the pork, all while keeping ATK in business making giant solid rocket motors?”
As with many government programs, the work is distributed around the country, which helps to get support from Congressmen and Senators. *Sigh*
The decision to not recover the SRBs was easy for NASA, because reusing the Shuttle SRBs did not save much money. Instead of figuring out how to make this more cost effective, NASA decided to make the SRBs expendable. Because the Space Shuttle was so expensive, NASA and Congress decided that SLS would be designed as a completely expendable rocket with a one-use capsule. Rather than figuring out how to do things better in space, the government chose to regress to 1960s methods. What a shame, and what a waste of NASA’s lessons learned and talented scientists, engineers, and technicians.
“Apologies for the harsh tone but I think it’s warranted, especially after finding out that NASA isn’t even attempting to recover the SRB’s, something they were originally designed to do.”
You are not the only one with harsh tones for SLS. As with all of NASA’s expensive projects, it is costing too much and will return too little. This is a major reason for shifting to commercial space companies. Commercial companies concentrate on projects that make a profit (sustainability), accomplish their goals with minimal cost, and don’t use taxpayer dollars to do it — so no one can complain that the money would be better used to pay people to be unproductive members of society (even NASA’s expensive projects are less costly and more productive than our various welfare programs). Commercial entities in space or on Earth are the zenith of efficiency, and government is the nadir.
’There is far more capital available outside of NASA than there is inside NASA.’ — paraphrased from an interview with NASA Administrator Bridenstine on the Ben Shapiro radio show on Monday 3 August 2020. Going commercial also removes another problem, the debates over what we should do with our limited space funding. When commercial companies choose how to spend their own money, they get to choose to go to the Moon, go to Mars, or go to asteroids. We don’t need a national debate over which destination we should spend our money on. But even better, with multiple companies making their own choices, each company can choose a unique destination, allowing us to go to the Moon, to Mars, and asteroids “at the same time.”
Allowing commercial companies to do their own things in space gives us the opportunity to explore space faster, forces us to develop space-based products that help us on Earth, and allows government projects to explore the more basic scientific areas rather than the areas that show the most promise for profit.
NASA has reverted to 1960s methods(!) because of government’s aversion to risk. New commercial companies tend to risk it all to develop new methods and products that advance the state of the art (wasn’t NASA going to do that?), and that is their strength. These new companies hope to get a jump on the competition and make a lot of money while everyone else is trying to catch up. SpaceX and Rocket Lab are doing this right now. This is another advantage to going commercial rather than depending upon NASA to take us to the future.
If Starship becomes operational, SLS will instantaneously become obsolete. So, yes, Gealon, you are justified in your harsh tone.
Thank you Edward, very informative. ^__^