STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - NASA conducted its second RS-25 engine hot fire test of the year Feb. 8 on the Fred Haise Test Stand at Stennis Space Center (SSC), the third hot fire in the latest test series that began in mid-December. NASA is testing RS-25 engines to help power the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) on future deep-space missions. Four RS-25 engines will generate a combined 2 million pounds of thrust to power SLS’s ascent. Each test in the current series is providing operational data to NASA's lead contractor, Aerojet Rocketdyne, on a variety of new components manufactured with state-of-the-art fabrication techniques as the company begins production of new RS-25 engines (Source: NASA/SSC, 02/08/22)
Relativity continues progress
Relativity Space, a Long Beach, Calif., aerospace startup, is making progress towards its first launch of a 3D-printed rocket. Relativity aims to alter the manufacturing process of rockets by 3D-printing almost every piece of its orbital-class Terran rockets. In the last two and a half years, the startup co-founded by Tim Ellis, formerly of Blue Origin, and Jordan Noone, formerly of SpaceX, has raised nearly $1.3 billion through private investors. It has expanded to nearly 600 employees in just a few years. Aside from headquarters and manufacturing facility in Long Beach, Relativity has operations at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., where it’s developing Launch Complex 16, and at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., which is testing its engines and rocket stages. In a recent tweet, Ellis revealed that the company completed a record nine successful Aeon engine tests in a single day. The CEO also stated that stage integration for Terran 1’s launch debut was making “amazing progress.” Relativity had previously planned for Terran 1’s first launch to take place by the end of 2021. That debut has since slipped to “early 2022”, while the company hopes its far larger reusable Terran R rocket will debut in 2024. (Source: Teslarati, 02/06/22)
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