THE HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT BLOG: From the Space Shuttle to Beyond

Space Launch System Update... Last week, workers at NASA's Stennis Space Center (SSC) in Mississippi returned the J-2X engine back to the A-2 Test Stand to begin a second round of testing. The J-2X had a successful test-firing at SSC last November. In that test, the J-2X provided continuous thrust for exactly 499.97 seconds.

The J-2X engine is designed to provide upper-stage power to the Space Launch System (SLS)...which should see its first flight take place in 2017. However, the J-2X itself will not be ready by then, and J-2X development will temporarily come to a halt (due to budget and schedule issues) while NASA employs other readily-available upper stage engines—most likely from Delta IV Heavy rockets—to provide thrust that will help send the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle to the Moon during the SLS flights of 2017 and 2021. 2017 will see an unmanned Orion vehicle conduct a lunar flyby while 2021 should see another Orion capsule, this time with astronauts aboard, circle the Moon once more.

The J-2X should be ready for the SLS' third voyage into space...sometime in the mid-2020s.


NASA / SSC


NASA / SSC