Aerojet Rocketdyne Completes RS-25 Certification Testing for Artemis V and Beyond

After successfully completing 45 development tests and 24 certification tests at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company, and NASA have finished all the hot-fire tests required to certify new versions of the RS-25 engine for the agency's SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. These engines will be used on Artemis missions starting with the fifth flight of SLS.

Four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines, generating more than 2 million pounds of combined liquid-propulsion thrust, help to power the core stage of the SLS at launch. The first four SLS missions are utilizing RS-25 engines remaining from NASA's Space Shuttle Program that have been refurbished and outfitted with modern flight computers and avionics.

At the end of the Space Shuttle Program, NASA had 16 engines remaining in its inventory, which is enough for four SLS flights, said Mike Lauer, RS-25 program director at Aerojet Rocketdyne. To power the flights that follow, our team was challenged to design and build a modernized version of the RS-25 that is more affordable without sacrificing its outstanding reliability, and, if we could increase its performance, even better.

The new engines will operate at 111% of rated thrust level on SLS, an increase from the shuttle program, where they ran at 104.5%, and the first four Artemis missions, which will run at 109%.

Since the RS-25 successfully powered 135 shuttle flights, the team knew they had a solid design that was reliable enough for astronaut-carrying missions. So, they went to work identifying parts that could be redesigned, simplified, and improved. In the end, about 70% of the components on newly built RS-25s are upgraded designs that, along with the other major components, have been tested to beyond their normal operational limits.

LINK:	https://www.l3harris.com/newsroom/editorial/2024/03/aerojet-rocketdyne...
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