SPACE reports, “The core stage of the first rocket to launch astronauts to the moon in over 50 years has left its manufacturing facility, and is bound for vehicle integration and assembly ahead of its launch next year. NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Artemis 2 booster was rolled out of the space agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility, in New Orleans today (July 16), 55 years to the day of NASA’s Apollo 11 launch to the moon.”
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Tag: assembly
NASA Finishes Assembly of SLS
The Daily Mail (UK) reports that NASA “has finished assembling its massive $18.6 billion (£13.18 billion) Space Launch System (SLS) ‘megarocket’ that will fly astronauts back to the moon over the coming decade.” On Friday, engineers at Kennedy Space Center “finished lowering the 212ft tall core stage between two smaller” boosters. This is “the first time the core stage and two boosters have been together in their launch configuration since the project was announced in 2011.” The SLS and the two solid boosters “will provide more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust to launch the first of NASA’s next-generation Artemis Moon missions, with Artemis-1 launching in November this year.”
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Lockheed Martin Completes Final Assembly of X-59
Aviation Week reports that Lockheed Martin “has completed final assembly of the X-59 Low Boom Supersonic Demonstrator in Palmdale, California, and is preparing to ship the experimental aircraft to Fort Worth for structural testing.”
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Supersonic Passenger Flights May Return
CNET News reports that a few companies are considering bringing back supersonic passenger flights. In 2021, United Airlines “agreed to buy 15 aircraft from Boom Supersonic, a startup working to build supersonic commercial jets. United is aiming to get those planes in the air by 2029.” Virgin Galactic and Rolls-Royce announced a partnership in 2020 to develop the X-59 aircraft, a quieter supersonic jet.
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Assembly on Dream Chaser Spacecraft Continues
The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports the launch of the first Dream Chaser spacecraft could take place by this time next year. The first Dream Chaser, named Tenacity, “has undergone aeroshell and wing deployment system installation at the company’s headquarters in Colorado, shown in a time-lapse video posted to the company’s YouTube channel on Tuesday.” Dream Chaser “will join SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for bringing cargo to the International Space Station, but the company is already planning to build out a human-rated version that could become one of the players to launch crew to the ISS or other private space stations, including their own, this decade.”
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X-59 Supersonic Aircraft Arrives at Palmdale for Assembly
SPACE reports that NASA’s new “X-59 supersonic jet arrived this month at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale for assembly, ahead of a flight test expected this year.” NASA said April 18, “With its return to California, the X-59 will undergo further ground tests as it approaches full completion of its development and continues to make progress on its way to first flight.”
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First B-21 Aircraft Starts Ground Testing, Assembly Begins on Sixth Bomber
Aviation Week reports that the first B-21 Raider “test aircraft has started ground evaluations, and the sixth example of the next-generation bomber has started production.” The announcement was made by the US Air Force at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium on Thursday.
Full Story (Aviation Week)