3 ms·
I assume this means the SRBs need to be disassembled to replace the sealing between the segments seeing as how these were stacked beginning in January 2021 [1]
by the_third_wave 4y ago
I assume this means the SRBs need to be disassembled to replace the sealing between the segments seeing as how these were stacked beginning in January 2021 [1] and the sealing is guaranteed for 12 months. This has already been extended for 7-8 months but if the launch is to be postponed until October or later they're coming up to 2 years:
The joints connecting each piece of Space Launch System’s five-segment rocket motors are certified for one year once booster stacking begins, a clock that began ticking Jan. 7 with the hoisting of the SLS’s left-hand aft center booster segment on top of the booster’s lowermost piece.
But the 12-month certification limit, a holdover from the space shuttle program, could be extended with an engineering review, according to John Honeycutt, NASA’s Space Launch System program manager at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.
Honeycutt said in January engineers planned to make measurements and collect data as ground teams stacked each segment of the Artemis 1 boosters inside the Vehicle Assembly Building. The data could help NASA and Northrop Grumman extend the certification of the rocket motor joints beyond 12 months.
“That gives us the best opportunity to do some sort of a life extension on the booster stacking in the event that we need that,” Honeycutt said.
[1] https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/03/09/stacking-complete-for-sls-boosters/ https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/03/09/stacking-complete-for-...
- DougWebb 4y agoYeah, it's not like NASA has ever had a problem ignoring their own procedures when it comes to the seals on these kinds of rockets...
- jeffrallen 4y agoThose who do not learn from history are doomed to... blow up their rockets?
- gsibble 4y agoIt's pretty clear they don't care at this point. They were extended by 6 months and no one has brought it up since then. NASA is feeling political heat to just fly this thing at any cost at this point.