NASA Achieves Milestone for Engines to Power Future Artemis Missions

NASA conducted a full-duration RS-25 hot fire April 3 on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, achieving a major milestone for future Artemis flights of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. It marked the final test of a 12-test series to certify production of new RS-25 engines by lead contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company, to help power NASA’s SLS rocket on Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond, beginning with Artemis V. The current series is the second and final series to certify restart production of the upgraded engines. NASA completed an initial 12-test certification series with the upgraded components in June 2023. Four RS-25 engines fire simultaneously to help launch each SLS rocket, producing up to 2 million pounds of combined thrust.

What is said in the film

♪ I'm Nyla Trumbach, and I'm the Lead Mechanical Test Operations Engineer on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA Stennis Space Center. I lead a team of four test engineers in testing the RS-25 engines for the Artemis program. In high school I was very interested in math and science, and I had a couple of teachers who pointed out that I was, I was pretty good at math, and they suggested I go to engineering school. So I chose that path. But as a girl, my grandfather was involved in the shuttle program and for our summer vacations we would visit them in Kennedy, at Kennedy Space Center, and one time I saw a shuttle launch from their backyard.

And I can remember the windows rattling, and I'd never seen anything like that. And at the time, I never dreamed that I'd be a part of the space program. It really was never a goal of mine. But coming out of school, I came back home and started looking for a job, and I got a job here at Stennis Space Center with Rocketdyne, and it just took off from there. When I first started out at Stennis, I was in the maintenance group for the Navy.

I didn't really have my sights set on conducting tests. You know, I think I even thought it might have been out of my, out of my league. But there was a job opening as a test engineer with Rocketdyne. And I remember I called up a lady I knew that worked for Rocketdyne just to get an idea of what the job was like and if it's something that I would like to do. And she said, Nyla, I just have to say this is the best job that anyone could ever have.

It's the most exciting, challenging job out here at Stennis Space Center. And so it was a little scary, you know, thinking of, of what, what I would be doing. But I'm so glad it, it worked out. And that I eventually became a test conductor. We are in the test control center right now, and this is where all the fun happens.

As test conductor for the day, you are in control of all operations for the day, so you have to be knowledgeable about all systems, the nitrogen systems, helium systems, hydraulic systems. You are in control of all of that and you direct the test team. So it's a lot of responsibility and there's a lot going on. We work to check sheets and procedures, so that helps keep us on task for the day. But the test conductor has to be ready to respond to any off-nominal things that can happen.

It's a lot of work and a lot of people that come together to, to get the test off. On a test day the atmosph, atmosphere in the control center is much like what the atmosphere would be like in a launch control center. It starts out fairly calm, you know, people getting set up and getting into their operations, but as the test day goes on, the tension becomes more and more and continues to increase up until auto-sequence start. A typical RS-25 test runs for 500 seconds, and at NASA, we believe in testing like you fly. So the reason we, we run for 500 seconds is because that's how long it takes the RS-25 engines to power the rocket into space.

As we get closer to the test here in the control center, everyone is focusing on, on their operation for the day. And you can feel the excitement in the room. The anticipation is building, and when I'm sitting here, I know that I'm usually really nervous but also excited and I can feel my heart just beating out of my chest. And once we hit auto-sequence start and start the test, there are several things that we look at. We monitor camera views to make sure there's nothing wrong in camera views.

We are watching our tank levels, our propellant tank levels, the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to make sure that we are on schedule for consumption. We are also looking at the engine profile and making sure that all of our valves and systems are performing as expected for the test profile for that particular test. We have to be ready to respond if we see a spot fire or any issues that happen during the test. Today, we're testing the RS-25 engines to certify them for use on the Space Launch System and Artemis missions that we'll be flying to the Moon. So when you're watching the test, you'll see what looks like a huge cloud of smoke coming out of the test stand.

But it's not actually smoke. And what that is, is water vapor. Our test stand has a deflector that pours out thousands of gallons of water per minute. And when the hot exhaust hits the deflector water, it creates the steam, the water vapor. Being a test conductor can be really stressful and it's, it's really hard work, but it also can be fun.

I enjoy being part of the team and working towards getting ready for the test. That's one of my favorite parts. And the most exciting part is being able to sit here during tests and after you hit auto-sequence start you can kind of take a deep breath when you see the engine light up, and sure there's a lot to look at after that. But to me, that is the, the most enjoyable part. You can kind of sit back and look and watch the engine fire.

One of the coolest things to me about what we do is actually the test stand. You think about the test stand and what it is. It has to be strong enough to hold the rocket down. And the rocket is meant to launch heavy, super heavy, you know, items, rocket into space. But the test stand has to hold that down, has to hold the rocket down so we can perform a good test.

I just think that's really amazing how these test stands were built and what they were made to do. If you're a young person out there today and you think that you'd like to become a test engineer, I would say focus on math and science and work hard. It can be hard sometimes, so don't give up. And if you stay at it, you can do it. (engine rumbling)

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