During the test, the 156-foot-long BOLE solid rocket motor produced upwards of 4 million pounds of thrust.
Image credit: Northrop Grumman
A full-scale static fire of NASA’s Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) solid rocket booster for the Space Launch System (SLS) coughed up a surprise anomaly.
The June 26 first firing of the enhanced five-segment solid rocket motor made use of over 700 data channels that appraised the 156-foot-long solid rocket motor as it fired for just over two minutes, churning out more than 4 million pounds of thrust from a single booster.
Anomaly
“While the motor appeared to perform well through a harsh burn environment, we observed an anomaly near the end of the two-plus minute burn,” said Jim Kalberer, Northrop Grumman’s vice president of propulsion systems.
“As a new design, and the largest segmented solid rocket booster ever built, this test provides us with valuable data to iterate our design for future developments,” Kalberer added in a press statement.
Image credit: Boeing
Composite case
The booster features a composite case design, updated propellant formulation and advanced components, observes the company, designed to increase booster performance by more than 10 percent compared with the current five-segment SLS booster design.
That carbon fiber composite case is to enable better booster performance, faster manufacturing, “and aligns with commercial standards by providing commonality among our infrastructure, supply chain, and manufacturing operations,” explains Northrop Grumman.
“Compared with its predecessor, this evolved booster provides another five metric tons of payload to lunar orbit, a capability critical to supporting deep space missions,” a company statement adds.
Image credit: Watch U.S. Fly
Old shuttle parts
Developing a new large solid rocket motor for the SLS is driven in part by assuring the SLS program doesn’t run out of the old shuttle parts they’re using, points out Scott Manley on his YouTube video link.
“Rather than simply building new boosters they’re removing all the bits that were needed for the shuttle but no longer make sense for SLS. They’re using a new casing, new fuel and new support systems,” Manley says. “But their first test did not go as planned.”
For a look at the issues found in the aftermath of the BOLE test, go to Manley’s report at: