The rocket engine test occurred at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Image: NASA
As NASA gears up for a return to the Moon with the Artemis missions, the administration has announced that its researchers have successfully developed and tested a new type of supersonic rocket engine called a rotating detonation rocket engine.
The rotating detonation rocket engine, or RDRE, generates thrust with detonation, in which a supersonic exothermic front accelerates to produce thrust, much the same way a shockwave travels through the atmosphere after something like TNT explodes. NASA says that this design uses less fuel and provides more thrust than current propulsion systems and that the RDRE could be used to power human landers, as well as crewed missions to the Moon, Mars, and deep space.
Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Test at Marshall Space Flight Center
NASA’s test of the RDRE featured 3D-printed parts made with a copper-alloy called GRCop-42, which the agency developed. During the test, the rocket withstood the high temperatures and pressures generated by the detonation, producing over 4,000 pounds (1,814 kilograms) of thrust for almost a minute.
NASA argues that the new rocket design can move more mass into deep space with less fuel, potentially making space travel more sustainable. With the successful tests, NASA engineers are now working on a fully reusable 10,000-pound (4,536 kilogram) RDRE to compare its performance to traditional liquid rocket engines.
NASA’s development of the RDRE signals the space administration’s interest in developing more efficient rocket technology for space travel. Earlier this week, NASA announced a joint collaboration with DARPA to develop DRACO, short for Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operation. DRACO would utilize a nuclear thermal engine for interplanetary travel, reducing travel time with a more efficient propulsion technology.
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More:SpaceX Completes First Wet Dress Rehearsal of Starship Megarocket
What’s the biggest rocket out there? Photo: Bill Ingalls/NASA (Getty Images)
I don’t know if you know this, but space is really freaking big. So to get there, we need to turn to some pretty enormous machines. The rockets that shoot satellites, astronauts and other craft into space can weigh hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pounds. So, they need a pretty big engine to get off the ground.
But, what are the biggest rocket engines out there, and what the heck have they been used for? That’s a question I pondered recently while staring aimlessly into space. So, here’s the answer to that questions.
These are the 15 most powerful rocket engines of all time, each ordered by their thrust at sea level. Because, it turns out that the thrust you get in the vacuum of space is different to that on Earth. The more you know.
R Madhavan’s Rocketry: The Nambi Effect is releasing across the country India in different languages, including Hindi, Tamil, English, Telugu, and Kannada. The film is based on the life of the former rocket scientist at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Nambi Narayanan. Along with this, the cinemagoers also have actioner Om The Battle Within releasing in the theaters this week. Both the films, belonging to different genres, will cater to a different set of audience. Film trade experts suggest while Rocketry will grow at the box office based on its word-of-mouth, Om will see a larger footfall in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
Film producer and trade analyst, Girish Johar believes the Madhavan film is “bending towards a niche audience” and is not a “hardcore commercial film”. As per him, the film is a bit upmarket and is targetting audiences in multiplexes.
“The buzz is quite good and positive, specifically down south. Rocketry is going to get a good start at the box office. The film has been receiving a lot of accolades from the international arena as well, so that is looking positive. For the Hindi belt, it will be more reliant on word of mouth and it should be decent to start with,” Johar told indianexpress.com, while adding that Rocketry should do somewhere around a crore on its opening day. “I am looking at its weekend and lifetime box office collection, instead of day one collection, since I know the film is based more on word of mouth,” he added.
R Madhavan plays the lead role in Rocketry. He has also written and directed the movie. Nambi Narayanan, Head of ISRO’s cryogenics division, was falsely accused of espionage and arrested in 1994. All charges against him were dismissed by the Supreme Court in 1998.
While Girish Johar feels Rocketry will find an audience in the urban market only, film exhibitor Akshaye Rathi, who has watched the film, suggests, “It is not a film which is intellectually inaccessible to people. It is a film about a rocket scientist and not a lesson in rocket science. It is told in a manner that common of the commonest people can understand.”
As per Rathi, the film will find traction across the country but its box office collection entirely depends on “how quickly the word of mouth spreads.” He said, “No doubt about the fact that this is not a film which will open to massive numbers on day one, it is more of a word-of-mouth film.” He also compared Rocketry to The Kashmir Files, which came as a surprise not only for the trade pundits but also for the film’s producers who never expected it to do so well at the ticket counters. “Even The Kashmir Files was also not an entertainer, but it was on an issue extremely relevant to us. That is what made it work. Having watched Rocketry, I can say it is one of the most important films made out of the Indian film industry. As a director and actor, R Madhavan has been phenomenal in this film,” shared Rathi.
For those who are looking for hardcore Bollywood entertainment, they have Aditya Roy Kapur-led Om. The action drama also stars Sanjana Sanghi, Jackie Shroff, Ashutosh Rana and Prachi Shah.
Aditya Roy Kapur in Om The Battle Within.
Pegging the film’s opening day collection at around Ts 1.5-2 crore, Girish Johar said, “It’s a typical hardcore action film. The trailer is decent. Aditya Roy Kapur fans will get to watch him as a typical Hindi hero. The excitement level is decent only. I feel the film is a change of gear for Aditya Roy Kapur, until now he has done mostly romantic films, and this is a hardcore action film. This time he has tried to explore a different field.”
Both Om and Rocketry will be released on nearly 1800-2000 screens.
NASA’s third attempt at a modified rehearsal of the Space Launch System (SLS) came to a halt on Thursday when a leak of liquid hydrogen was detected during tanking operations. The space agency is planning another wet dress rehearsal for the Moon rocket no earlier than April 21.
This is the latest in several setbacks to the rocket’s wet dress rehearsal, including delays due to weather, malfunctioning ventilation fans, and valve issues.
“All the issues that we’re encountering are procedural and lessons learned,” Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, said during a press conference on Friday.
A wet dress rehearsal is when the 322-foot rocket is filled with fuel as it sits on top of a launch pad, and the team runs through a mock countdown to prepare for the day of launch. The rehearsal is critical for the launch of Artemis I, an uncrewed mission to the Moon and back, and the first step to returning humans to the Moon by the year 2026.
This wet dress rehearsal was first scheduled for April 1, but was initially delayed due to technical issues that prevented the crew from loading the rocket up with fuel. Before the next test date on April 11, the team discovered a faulty valve, which led them to modify the rehearsal and plan on only fueling the SLS core stage, and not its upper stage.
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Thursday’s third attempt was unfortunately not the charm, as the team discovered a leak of liquid hydrogen from the tail service mast umbilical, which connects the base of the mobile launcher to the core stage. Liquid hydrogen is one of two propellants used for the rocket, the other being liquid oxygen.
By the time the wet dress rehearsal was shut down, about 49% of the tank was filled with liquid oxygen, and only 5% of the other tank was filled with liquid hydrogen. The team successfully managed to cool down the lines used to load propellant into the upper stage, but were not able to flow any propellant to the stage due an issue with a valve.
Still, the team behind the SLS rocket say they aren’t giving up. “There’s no doubt in my mind that we will finish this test campaign, and that we will look into the hardware and the data will lead us to the next steps,” Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director, said during the teleconference. “We will launch this vehicle… and we will be ready to go fly.”
NASA’s SLS rocket on Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
A critical multi-day test of NASA’s Space Launch System was called off on Monday due to an issue with a cryogenic propellant pressure vent valve. The space agency seeks to resume the wet dress rehearsal in the near future, saying there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the gigantic rocket.
Space is hard, as the saying goes, and that’s certainly true when it comes to preparing a never-flown rocket for a mission to the Moon and back. NASA is currently fitting its much-anticipated SLS rocket for launch at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but the wet dress rehearsal failed to reach the finish line. The rocket was to be fully prepped—including tanks topped with super-cold propellant and the countdown started—but not launched.
“The mega Moon rocket is fine. We’re working to get it into a launch position,” Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for Common Exploration Systems Development at NASA, told reporters yesterday during a media teleconference. “We’re just going to have to work our way through it,” he said, adding that the ground teams are “doing a really good job.”
This work is being done in preparation for the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission, the inaugural flight of SLS. The next-gen rocket is a critical component of the Artemis program, which seeks to land a man and woman on the Moon later this decade. NASA is currently targeting a June launch, but that will depend on the results of the yet-to-be completed wet dress rehearsal.
The space agency halted the test on Monday after ground teams were unable to proceed with the loading of cryogenic liquid hydrogen propellant. The problem was eventually traced to a manual vent valve that was left in the closed position, an unfortunate configuration that couldn’t be remedied remotely. In a statement, NASA said “the valve positioning has since been corrected.” The team did manage to load approximately 50% of the required cryogenic liquid oxygen propellant into the core stage, which was subsequently drained.
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The misconfigured vent valve, located on the 160 level of the mobile launcher, was hardly the only problem faced by ground teams during the rehearsal, which got underway on Friday, April 1. Four lightning bolts struck the launch pad on Saturday, resulting in a slight delay, but the test came to full stop on Sunday when two fans, which are designed to ventilate the rocket’s 370-foot-tall (113-meter) mobile launcher, glitched out.
Despite this and another problem having to do with the third-party supplier of gaseous nitrogen, NASA resumed the wet dress on Monday. But again, new problems appeared, including a temperature limit issue for the cryogenic liquid oxygen, causing a delay of several hours. Resolved, the rehearsal continued, but the vent valve problem forced the launch director to call it a day at 5:00 p.m. EDT on Monday.
NASA is now preparing for the next wet dress attempt, but it’s stepping aside to allow for the launch of the Axiom Space Ax-1 mission, which is set to blast off from Kennedy Space Center on Friday morning. A date for the resumption of the launch rehearsal hasn’t been announced, but NASA officials said it’ll happen soon. The fully integrated rocket, with the Orion capsule up top, continues to stand on launch pad 39B.
Whitmeyer brushed off the less-than-ideal launch rehearsal, saying the ground teams learned “a couple things” from this “highly choreographed dance” that simply need to be cleaned up. “Sometimes you run into something that you weren’t really expecting,” he told reporters, comparing it to puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit. The “vehicle is doing pretty good,” said Whitmeyer, adding that similar issues were encountered during the SLS Green Run tests at NASA’s Stennis Space Center and during the development of the Space Shuttle.
At the press conference, Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, said the teams have detected “no fundamental design flaws or issues” with the rocket and the problems experienced are best characterized as “nuisance” or “technical issues” that couldn’t be detected during prior testing.
“By putting it all together, you learn where the uncertainties are, and we’re working our way through that,” Sarafin said. “Sometimes you learn that a full system is slightly different than the subscale, but there are no major issues to overcome.” Most of the problems are small or procedural in nature, he said, such as slight adjustments to timing or limits, but “in terms of the rocket, the hardware is fine, the spacecraft is fine—we just gotta get through the test and the test objectives,” he said.
“It was a significant day for us. Our team accomplished quite a bit,” Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, told reporters. Indeed, while it’s tempting to focus on the negatives, the team did manage to cross many items off their substantial checklist. These included the configuring of Launch Pad 39B and the mobile launcher, powering up Orion and the rocket in launch configuration, checkouts of the guidance, navigation, and control system, and the draining of propellant after the test, among others.
No date has been set for Artemis 1 or the resumption of the wet dress, but the good news is that the rehearsal won’t have to start from scratch. The clock is currently on hold, and the launch system remains in an ideal configuration, NASA officials said. The main priority moving forward will be to finally fill the core and second stage with cryogenic propellants and stop the countdown at T-10 seconds. When asked if SLS will still launch in June, Sarafin said: “We’re not giving up on it yet.”
Have a tip or comment for me about the spaceflight industry? Reach me at george.dvorsky@gizmodo.com.
SLS on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
A critical test of NASA’s upcoming Space Launch System rocket starts this Friday, but the live broadcast of the wet dress rehearsal promises to be a dull and silent affair owing to security concerns. We live in uncertain times, no question, but some experts say this muzzling is over the top and unhelpful.
It’s been nearly two weeks since SLS rolled out to launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 322-foot-tall rocket, after tons of anticipation, is nearly ready for prime time. All that’s needed now is a successful wet dress rehearsal, in which propellant will be loaded into the launcher’s tanks and a countdown rehearsed by the launch team.
“It’s the last design verification prior to launch,” Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for common exploration systems development at NASA, said today at a media teleconference. “We could learn something,” he said, but ultimately the goal is to “make it through the count” and see how SLS performs during an actual test. The team will then evaluate the data and, assuming everything’s fine, announce a date for the inaugural launch of SLS—the Artemis 1 mission—during the week of April 11.
The wet dress rehearsal is scheduled to start on Friday, April 1 at 5:00 p.m. EDT and end with the draining of the tanks on Sunday, April 3 at roughly 4:30 p.m. EDT. NASA will broadcast the entire test at the Kennedy Newsroom YouTube channel, but “without audio or commentary,” according to a press release. And as Whitmeyer explained at the media conference, reporters won’t have the usual access to detailed countdown info.
That’s a surprise, to say the least. A lot goes on during wet dress rehearsals, but this time around we won’t get to follow along in real-time. NASA says some details will be made available on its social media platforms, including the Artemis blog, but the extent to which it will share information is unknown.
The reason for the hush-hush has to do with International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) concerns having to do with the sharing, or “exporting,” of sensitive information. In the case of SLS, Whitmeyer said America’s rivals could deduce cryogenic timing information to assist in the development of ballistic missile systems. Accordingly, NASA will be “avoiding any specific timing, flow, or other types of things that would inadvertently give an indication towards specific characteristics of the operations that we’re going through.”
Whitmeyer added that NASA is being extra cautious given “the environment we’re in nowadays,” and said that the space agency can’t risk the disclosure of sensitive information. He’s likely referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and recent weapons tests in North Korea.
Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, isn’t convinced an ITAR-enforced silence during the SLS wet dress rehearsal will do any good.
“The problem with any such security mandate is that it is typically not being enforced by the people who have the necessary technical understanding to know what is actually helpful to others,” such as China, for example, or “what wouldn’t be helpful,” he told me in an email. “And so, it gets enforced wildly over-enthusiastically, to the point that the degree to which it impedes free communication is more harmful than any risk that it protects against.”
Whitmeyer said journalists will be provided with a general countdown timeline later this week and that a post-test media teleconference will take place on Monday, April 4.
As for the (eventual) Artemis 1 mission, Whitmeyer is hopeful that NASA will “provide the normal calls” during the real launch. That would be grand, but it’s clear we no longer live in “normal” times.
A view of SLS inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, showing the tops of the side rocket boosters.Photo: NASA/Cory Huston
A faulty memory chip caused a problem last year with NASA’s upcoming Space Launch System megarocket—an issue the space agency says is now resolved.
A wet dress rehearsal appears to be closer than ever after a successful series of tests done on all four RS-25 engine flight controllers, according to a NASA release. In December 2021, one of these flight controllers began to misbehave, but the replacement unit, along with the pre-existing engine controllers, now appear to be functioning properly. The problem seemingly resolved, NASA can now focus on the final close-outs as it prepares for the inaugural launch of the 332-foot-tall (101-meter) rocket, a mission known as Artemis 1.
The SLS rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.Photo: NASA/Frank Michaux
“All four engine controllers performed as expected during power up,” according to the NASA statement. Aerojet Rocketdyne, the developer of the RS-25 engine, has been working with the space agency to resolve the problem and assist with the recently concluded tests. The 5.75-million-pound rocket is currently undergoing integrated testing inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The flight controller on engine number four had to be replaced after it glitched out late last year. These devices communicate with the rocket to provide precision control and to report on the health of each RS-25 engine, which dates back to the Space Shuttle program.
NASA traced the cause of the malfunction to a faulty memory chip. This chip is only needed during the controller start-up sequence, and it has no impact on controller operations aside from that lone function, NASA says. No problems with the three other memory chips were detected, in what is a very positive sign.
The controller problem forced NASA to delay the much-anticipated wet dress rehearsal, in which the rocket will be rolled out to Launch Pad 39B and filled with propellant. That said, NASA recently admitted that the sheer volume of testing has also responsible for the delays. A wet dress rehearsal was originally scheduled for late January, and then for early February, with the latest word that it could happen in March.
Next steps include pre-flight diagnostics and the final hardware closeouts, such as tests with the flight termination system and last-minute installations on the two solid rocket boosters. The wet dress rehearsal, in addition to being a practice run, will provide NASA with important data for evaluating the overall performance of the system. NASA will set a launch date for Artemis 1 following a successful wet dress rehearsal. An April launch is not out of the question, but we’ll hold off on making any firm predictions.
SLS is a huge deal for NASA, as it will enable the upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon and Mars. Once complete, it will be the world’s most powerful rocket—at least until SpaceX launches its fully stacked Starship, which is likewise expected to go up later this year.
More: Encouraging Webb Telescope Image Shows a Single Star in a Familiar Pattern.
The Atlas V 511 rocket at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Photo: ULA
On Friday afternoon, United Launch Alliance will attempt to launch a uniquely fitted Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. You can watch the action live right here.
The window for today’s launch will open at 2:00 p.m. EST (11:00 a.m. PST), with forecasters predicting an 80% chance of good weather at Cape Canaveral.
The ULA Atlas V 511 rocket, with its extra-wide faring and lone side rocket booster, will blast off from Space Launch Complex-41. United Launch Alliance will use this unique configuration to launch two satellites for the U.S. Space Force, in a mission known as USSF-8. You can stream ULA’s webcast here, with coverage starting at 1:30 p.m. EST (10:30 a.m. PST):
The two identical satellites, GSSAP-5 and GSSAP-6, represent the fifth and six satellites of Space Force’s Situational Awareness Program. The satellites will go directly to geosynchronous orbit, some 22,300 miles (36,000 km) above the equator, where they will provide “neighborhood watch services” for the purpose of “improving flight safety for all spacefaring nations operating in that orbit,” according to ULA’s mission overview. Data from the GSSAP satellite network will allow for improved orbital predictions, such that satellite controllers can be alerted to possible collisions with space junk or other satellites. The previous four GSSAP satellites were delivered in pairs on Delta 4 rockets in 2014 and 2016.
A view of the rocket with its lone solid-fueled booster.Photo: ULA
ULA says this’ll be the first and only flight of the Atlas V 511 configuration, and it remains the only unflown configuration in the Atlas family of rockets. Since 2002, the Atlas V has flown in 10 different configurations, this being the 11th. Today’s launch will be ULA’s third direct-to-GEO mission, the previous two being AFSPC-11 in 2018 and STP-3 in 2021.
The “511” configuration is in reference to the fairing, side booster, and second stage booster. The “5” represents the width of the payload fairing, which is 5 meters, or 17 feet, across. The first “1” is the number of solid rocket boosters strapped to the side, and the second “1” refers to the number of engines on the second stage Centaur booster. ULA has previously flown an Atlas V 411 rocket, a configuration you should be able to figure out for yourself given my clear and concise explanation.
The single solid-fueled booster gives the rocket a distinctly asymmetrical appearance, but it will provide the additional power needed at liftoff: 371,500 pounds of thrust. The kerosene-fueled main booster will provide 860,200 pounds of thrust, for a total of 1.23 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. The Atlas V 511 is capable of delivering up to 11,570 pounds (5,250 kg) of payload to an elliptical geostationary orbit, according to SpaceFlightNow.
The Atlas V 511, in addition to looking off-kilter, will also exert asymmetrical thrust, as AmericaSpace explains in a post from last year:
Like its smaller cousin, the Atlas V 411—which carries a slightly smaller payload fairing, measuring 13 feet (4 meters) across, and which saw service most recently in February 2020 to launch Solar Orbiter—the 511 will exhibit an unusual “sideways-flying” perspective as it “slides” upward from the pad.
Steering actuators on the Atlas V’s RD-180 engine will counteract the asymmetrical thrust from the single solid and ensure that the rocket flies straight and true, but it will undoubtedly offer a disconcerting sight for spectators. And as [ULA CEO Tory] Bruno previously noted, all Atlas Vs have their own nicknames. With the 411 already dubbed “Slider”, the moniker for the bigger 511 is “Super Slider”.
The entire mission will take slightly less than eight minutes to complete. Key moments will include the jettisoning of the solid rocket booster at two minutes, the jettisoning of the payload fairing at the 3:30 mark, separation of Atlas/Centaur at 4:27, and the first main engine start of Centaur 10 seconds later. The two satellites will separate at marks 6:35 and 6:45. Fingers are crossed that the Super Slider will perform as expected.
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