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Test Like You Fly: What Is Green Run?

ByDave Stopher

Aug 7, 2019 #NASA

Before NASA’s deep space rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to send NASA’s Orion spacecraft to the Moon, its core stage design will be tested in a series of tests called green run. The core stage design will be used for all configurations of the SLS rocket, and these tests will verify the stage is ready for the first and future Artemis missions. During green run, the rocket’s massive, 212-foot-tall core stage — the same flight hardware that will send Artemis 1 to the Moon — will operate together for the first time. Just as during an actual launch, propellant will flow through the rocket’s two propellant tanks, the avionics and flight computers will operate all the systems and all four RS-25 engines will fire simultaneously. Engineers will install the stage in the B-2 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The stage is currently being manufactured at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Upon completion in December 2019, the stage will be transported by barge to Stennis for testing.

NASA is working to land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024. SLS and Orion, along with the Gateway in orbit around Moon, are NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.

NASA/Kevin O’Brien