The engine section for NASA’s Space Launch System core stage houses the four RS-25 engines that will produce 2 million pounds of thrust during launch. The engine section is home to the avionics that steer the engines and is an attachment point for the solid rocket boosters that produce 6.8 million pounds of thrust. To do all this, the engine section must be incredibly strong. A structural test version of the engine section recently arrived at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where engineers are preparing for a series of tests to validate the design can handle the pressures of launch and flight. Once the hardware is installed into a newly constructed 50-foot test stand, hydraulic cylinders will push, pull, twist and bend the engine section with millions of pounds of force.
Image Credit: NASA/MSFC image: Kevin Obrien