As work moves forward toward future lunar missions for the benefit of humanity, teams with NASA are gaining momentum, as multiple flight hardware shipments from around the world head to Florida for the first Crew Artemis flight test and follow-on lunar missions. Arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. Additional structures will soon appear on Kennedy’s horizon as teams build the ground systems needed to support them.
The crew is well underway with parallel preparations for the Artemis II flight as well as construction of NASA’s Mobile Launcher 2 tower for use during launches of the SLS (Space Launch System) Block 1B rocket beginning with the Artemis IV mission. Have been. This version of NASA’s rocket would use a more powerful upper stage to launch with crew and more cargo on lunar missions. Technicians have begun testing the upper stage’s umbilical connection that will help supply fuel and other items to the rocket on the launch pad.
In the summer of 2024, NASA and contractor Bechtel National, Inc. Technicians completed a milestone called a jack and set, where the center’s mega-mover, the Crawler Transporter, replaced six of the initial steel base assemblies for Mobile Launcher 2 from temporary construction shoring. Permanent pedestal near Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building.
“The NASA Bechtel Mobile Launcher 2 team is ahead of schedule and gaining momentum by the day,” said Darrell Foster, ground systems integration manager for NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program at NASA Kennedy. “In parallel with all the progress at our main construction site, the remaining tower modules have been assembled and prepared at a second construction site in the center.”
As construction of the base of Mobile Launcher 2 continues, assembly operations turn to the integration of the modules that will form the tower. In mid-October 2024, workers completed the installation of the chair, which was named because of its resemblance to a giant seat. The plinth serves as the interface between the base deck and the vertical modules that are the components that make up the tower, and stands 80 feet high.
In December 2024, teams completed the Rig and Set Module 4 operation, where the first module of a total of seven 40-foot-long modules was placed on top of the plinth. The Bechtel crew attached the module to a heavy lift crane, raised the module more than 150 feet, and secured all four corners to the tower plinth. Once complete, the entire mobile launcher structure will reach a height of approximately 400 feet – approximately the length of four Olympic-sized swimming pools placed end-to-end.
On the opposite side of center, test teams at the Launch Equipment Test Facility are testing the new umbilical interface that will be located on Mobile Launcher 2, which will be needed to support the new SLS Block 1B Exploration Upper Stage. The umbilicals are connecting lines that provide fuel, oxidizer, pneumatic pressure, instruments, and electrical connections from the mobile launcher to the upper stage and other elements of the SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
Kevin Jumper, lab manager at the NASA Launch Equipment Test Facility at Kennedy, said, “All ambient temperature testing has been successfully completed and the team is now beginning cryogenic testing, where liquid nitrogen and liquid hydrogen are used in the navel to verify acceptable performance.” Will flow through.” “The Exploration Upper Stage Umbilical Team has made significant progress on check-out and verification testing of the Mobile Launcher 2 umbilicals.”
The test involves extension and retraction of the Exploration Upper Stage umbilical arms which will be installed on Mobile Launcher 2. The test team remotely triggers the umbilical arms to retract, ensuring that the ground and flight umbilical plates separate as expected, which will simulate the operation. Demonstration was carried out at lift off.
