COLD FLOW - Liquid oxygen runs through the piping on Stennis Space Center's A-1 Test Stand on Dec. 18 to test the ability of the J-2X engine's Powerpack 1A to withstand the temperature change and pressure. Just visible above and to the right of the test article's nozzle is a frosty pipe, indicating the supercold fuel is flowing as it should.
John "JC" Carver, a payload integration engineer with NASA Kennedy Space Center's Test and Operations Support Contract, places Arabidopsis thaliana plants harvested from the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) Flight Unit No. 1 into an Ultra-low Freezer chilled to -150 degrees Celsius. The harvest is part of an ongoing verification test of the APH unit, which is located inside the International Space Station Environmental Simulator in Kennedy's Space Station Processing Facility. The APH undergoing testing at Kennedy is identical to one on the station and uses red, green and broad-spectrum white LED lights to grow plants in an environmentally controlled chamber. The seeds grown during the verification test will be grown on the station to help scientists understand how these plants adapt to spaceflight.
Technicians at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lift the core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission. Teams at Michoud lifted the core stage on Thursday, July 11, 2024, onto NASA’s Multi-Purpose Transportation System, designed to transport SLS vehicle segments by waterway and roadway. It is tasked with transporting the vehicle from where it is manufactured to its intermediate test location and final launch destination. The core stage was lifted in preparation for its move onto the agency’s Pegasus barge, where it will be ferried to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Pegasus is maintained at Michoud. The core stage for the SLS mega rocket is the largest stage NASA has ever produced. At 212 feet tall, the stage consists of five major elements, including two huge propellant tanks that collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of super chilled liquid propellant to feed four RS-25 engines at its base. During launch and flight, the stage will operate for just over eight minutes, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help send a crew of four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft onward to the Moon. All the major structures for every SLS core stage are fully manufactured at NASA Michoud. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generation space, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
Technicians at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lift the core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission. Teams at Michoud lifted the core stage on Thursday, July 11, 2024, onto NASA’s Multi-Purpose Transportation System, designed to transport SLS vehicle segments by waterway and roadway. It is tasked with transporting the vehicle from where it is manufactured to its intermediate test location and final launch destination. The core stage was lifted in preparation for its move onto the agency’s Pegasus barge, where it will be ferried to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Pegasus is maintained at Michoud. The core stage for the SLS mega rocket is the largest stage NASA has ever produced. At 212 feet tall, the stage consists of five major elements, including two huge propellant tanks that collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of super chilled liquid propellant to feed four RS-25 engines at its base. During launch and flight, the stage will operate for just over eight minutes, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help send a crew of four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft onward to the Moon. All the major structures for every SLS core stage are fully manufactured at NASA Michoud. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generation space, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
Technicians at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lift the core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission. Teams at Michoud lifted the core stage on Thursday, July 11, 2024, onto NASA’s Multi-Purpose Transportation System, designed to transport SLS vehicle segments by waterway and roadway. It is tasked with transporting the vehicle from where it is manufactured to its intermediate test location and final launch destination. The core stage was lifted in preparation for its move onto the agency’s Pegasus barge, where it will be ferried to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Pegasus is maintained at Michoud. The core stage for the SLS mega rocket is the largest stage NASA has ever produced. At 212 feet tall, the stage consists of five major elements, including two huge propellant tanks that collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of super chilled liquid propellant to feed four RS-25 engines at its base. During launch and flight, the stage will operate for just over eight minutes, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help send a crew of four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft onward to the Moon. All the major structures for every SLS core stage are fully manufactured at NASA Michoud. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generation space, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
Technicians at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lift the core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission. Teams at Michoud lifted the core stage on Thursday, July 11, 2024, onto NASA’s Multi-Purpose Transportation System, designed to transport SLS vehicle segments by waterway and roadway. It is tasked with transporting the vehicle from where it is manufactured to its intermediate test location and final launch destination. The core stage was lifted in preparation for its move onto the agency’s Pegasus barge, where it will be ferried to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Pegasus is maintained at Michoud. The core stage for the SLS mega rocket is the largest stage NASA has ever produced. At 212 feet tall, the stage consists of five major elements, including two huge propellant tanks that collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of super chilled liquid propellant to feed four RS-25 engines at its base. During launch and flight, the stage will operate for just over eight minutes, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help send a crew of four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft onward to the Moon. All the major structures for every SLS core stage are fully manufactured at NASA Michoud. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generation space, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
Technicians at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lift the core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission. Teams at Michoud lifted the core stage on Thursday, July 11, 2024, onto NASA’s Multi-Purpose Transportation System, designed to transport SLS vehicle segments by waterway and roadway. It is tasked with transporting the vehicle from where it is manufactured to its intermediate test location and final launch destination. The core stage was lifted in preparation for its move onto the agency’s Pegasus barge, where it will be ferried to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Pegasus is maintained at Michoud. The core stage for the SLS mega rocket is the largest stage NASA has ever produced. At 212 feet tall, the stage consists of five major elements, including two huge propellant tanks that collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of super chilled liquid propellant to feed four RS-25 engines at its base. During launch and flight, the stage will operate for just over eight minutes, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help send a crew of four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft onward to the Moon. All the major structures for every SLS core stage are fully manufactured at NASA Michoud. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generation space, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
Technicians at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lift the core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission. Teams at Michoud lifted the core stage on Thursday, July 11, 2024, onto NASA’s Multi-Purpose Transportation System, designed to transport SLS vehicle segments by waterway and roadway. It is tasked with transporting the vehicle from where it is manufactured to its intermediate test location and final launch destination. The core stage was lifted in preparation for its move onto the agency’s Pegasus barge, where it will be ferried to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Pegasus is maintained at Michoud. The core stage for the SLS mega rocket is the largest stage NASA has ever produced. At 212 feet tall, the stage consists of five major elements, including two huge propellant tanks that collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of super chilled liquid propellant to feed four RS-25 engines at its base. During launch and flight, the stage will operate for just over eight minutes, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help send a crew of four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft onward to the Moon. All the major structures for every SLS core stage are fully manufactured at NASA Michoud. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generation space, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
Technicians at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lift the core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission. Teams at Michoud lifted the core stage on Thursday, July 11, 2024, onto NASA’s Multi-Purpose Transportation System, designed to transport SLS vehicle segments by waterway and roadway. It is tasked with transporting the vehicle from where it is manufactured to its intermediate test location and final launch destination. The core stage was lifted in preparation for its move onto the agency’s Pegasus barge, where it will be ferried to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Pegasus is maintained at Michoud. The core stage for the SLS mega rocket is the largest stage NASA has ever produced. At 212 feet tall, the stage consists of five major elements, including two huge propellant tanks that collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of super chilled liquid propellant to feed four RS-25 engines at its base. During launch and flight, the stage will operate for just over eight minutes, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help send a crew of four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft onward to the Moon. All the major structures for every SLS core stage are fully manufactured at NASA Michoud. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generation space, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
NASA image release August 23, 2012 What looks like a giant golden spider weaving a web of cables and cords, is actually ground support equipment, including the Optical Telescope Simulator (OSIM), for the James Webb Space Telescope. OSIM's job is to generate a beam of light just like the one that the real telescope optics will feed into the actual flight instruments. Because the real flight instruments will be used to test the real flight telescope, their alignment and performance first have to be verified by using the OSIM. Engineers are thoroughly checking out OSIM now in preparation for using it to test the flight science instruments later. This photo was taken from inside a large thermal-vacuum chamber called the Space Environment Simulator (SES), at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Engineers have blanketed the structure of the OSIM with special insulating material to help control its temperature while it goes into the deep freeze testing that mimics the chill of space that Webb will ultimately experience in its operational orbit over 1 million miles from Earth. The golden-colored thermal blankets are made of aluminized kapton, a polymer film that remains stable over a wide range of temperatures. The structure that looks like a silver and black cube underneath the "spider" is a set of cold panels that surround OSIM's optics. During testing, OSIM's temperature will drop to 100 Kelvin (-280 F or -173 C) as liquid nitrogen flows through tubes welded to the chamber walls and through tubes along the silver panels surrounding OSIM's optics. These cold panels will keep the OSIM optics very cold, but the parts covered by the aluminized kapton blankets will stay warm. "Some blankets have silver facing out and gold facing in, or inverted, or silver on both sides, etc.," says Erin Wilson, a Goddard engineer. "Depending on which side of the blanket your hardware is looking at, the blankets can help it get colder or stay warmer, in an environmental test." Another reason for thermal blankets is to shield the cold OSIM optics from unwanted stray infrared light. When the OSIM is pointing its calibrated light beam at Webb's science instruments, engineers don't want any stray infrared light, such as "warm photons" from warm structures, leaking into the instruments' field of view. Too much of this stray light would raise the background too much for the instruments to "see" light from the OSIM—it would be like trying to photograph a lightning bug flying in front of car headlights. To get OSIM's optics cold, the inside of the chamber has to get cold, and to do that, all the air has to be pumped out to create a vacuum. Then liquid nitrogen has to be run though the plumbing along the inner walls of the chamber. Wilson notes that's why the blankets have to have vents in them: "That way, the air between all the layers can be evacuated as the chamber pressure drops, otherwise the blankets could pop," says Wilson. The most powerful space telescope ever built, Webb is the successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Webb's four instruments will reveal how the universe evolved from the Big Bang to the formation of our solar system. Webb is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Chris Gunn <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASA_GoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagrid.me/nasagoddard/?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>