14 DAY TRIAL // A new rocket engine design has just been completed at the American space agency, and experts here are eager to put it to the test. The thrusters could be used on the upper stage of the new heavy-lift delivery system that Congress tasked NASA with putting together over the next couple of years.
The rocket engine is called J-2X, and it was designed and built for NASA by Canoga Park, California-based manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. The program is managed by experts at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), in Huntsville, Alabama.
The first round of tests is imminent, officials at the MSFC say. Over the next two weeks, the motors will be put through their paces, in a series of 10 test firings meant to assess their overall performances.
On Saturday, June 11, an entire J-2X motor was installed on the A-2 Test Stand at the NASA Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi. The facility is being used extensively for engine tests, and numerous famous motors were first fired here.
Even the engines on the American space shuttles were tested at Stennis, decades ago. Now, it's time for the Pratt & Whitney ones to be fired. The new tests are expected to stretch over several months.
“An upper stage engine is essential to making space exploration outside low-Earth orbit a reality,” explains MSFC J-2X upper stage engine project manager, Mike Kynard. He is the senior NASA official in charge of the new motors' development.
“The J-2X goes beyond the limits of its historic predecessor and achieves higher thrust, performance, and reliability than the J2. We are thrilled to have the engine in the test stand to validate our assumptions about engine performance and reliability,” he goes on to say.
“We are excited to have a new engine in the A-2 Test Stand. Installation of the J-2X engine marks the beginning of the third major rocket engine test project on this historic stand,” says Stennis J-2X engine testing project manager Gary Benton.
Once in orbit, the new motor can provide an estimated 242,000 pounds of thrust, which is achieved by changing the ratio of the liquid oxygen-liquid hydrogen fuel mixture it uses. This is enough to take spacecraft or rocket stages off low-Earth orbit, and put them on another trajectory.
By using the J-2X, it could be possible to aim future vehicles or payloads to the Moon, Mars, or even near-Earth objects (NEO). US President Barack Obama's space policy calls for NASA to reach a NEO by 2025, and Mars by the 2030s, SpaceRef reports.