HAPPENING AT 2PM: Stennis to perform final Green Run hot fire test

HANCOCK COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) - Stennis Space Center is set to perform its final Green Run hot fire test Thursday afternoon. After this test, the next time the rocket will light up will be when NASA launches its first Artemis mission, sending the first woman to the moon.

You can watch NASA’s live coverage of the SLS Green Run hot fire test starting approximately 30 minutes before the scheduled 2 p.m. hot fire.

This final test follows two previous tests on the core stage’s four RS-25 engines for the B-2 Test Stand at the Bay St. Louis facility. The hot fire is the final test of the Green Run series, a comprehensive assessment of the SLS core stage before launching the Artemis I mission, which will land the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024.

The hot fire is the eighth and final test of the Green Run series to ensure the core stage of the SLS rocket is ready to launch Artemis missions to the Moon, beginning with Artemis I. The core stage includes the liquid hydrogen tank and liquid oxygen tank, four RS-25 engines, as well as the computers, electronics, and avionics that serve as the “brains” of the rocket.

On test day, engineers will power up all the core stage systems, load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic, or supercold, propellant into the tanks, and fire the rocket’s four RS-25 engines at the same time to simulate the stage’s operation during launch, generating 1.6 million pounds of thrust.

The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will test the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon. Under the Artemis program, NASA is working to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon to pave the way for sustainable exploration at the Moon and future missions to Mars.

NASA will have live coverage of Thursday’s SLS Green Run hot fire test on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app approximately 30 minutes before the hot fire. (You’ll also be able to find that live feed at the top of this news story.) A post-test briefing will follow on NASA Television approximately two hours after the test.

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