Watch live today: NASA fires up its SLS megarocket for final ‘green run’ test, ,

NASA will fire up the core stage of its Space Launch System (SLS) on Wednesday (March 18) for the final test in the series of “green run” tests that will determine whether the new megarocket is ready to fly Artemis moon missions.

The test will take place at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, during a two-hour window that opens at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT). NASA TV will provide live coverage beginning about 30 minutes before the hot fire begins. You can watch it live here in the window above, courtesy of NASA, or directly via NASA TV.

Wednesday’s “hot fire” is the eighth and final “green run” test, but this will be NASA’s second attempt at it. An earlier attempt on Jan. 16 ended prematurely when the booster’s engines shut down earlier than planned. NASA originally rescheduled the test for Feb. 25, but that attempt was again delayed due to a valve issue.

NASA is targeting a two-hour test window that opens at 3 p.m. EDT Thursday, March 18, for the second hot fire test of the core stage for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

The agency plans to begin live coverage on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app approximately 30 minutes before the hot fire. The team will refine the timeline as it proceeds through operations. NASA will provide updates on the operations and the target hot fire time at @NASA and the Artemis blog.

On test day, engineers will power up all the core stage systems, load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic, or supercold, propellant into the tanks, and fire the rocket’s four RS-25 engines at the same time to simulate the stage’s operation during launch, generating 1.6 million pounds of thrust.

A post-test briefing will follow on NASA Television approximately two hours after the test. Media can ask questions during the briefing by phone. To participate, reporters must contact Kathryn Hambleton at kathryn.hambleton@nasa.gov by 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 17, for dial-in information.

The hot fire is the eighth and final test of the Green Run series to ensure the core stage of the SLS rocket is ready to launch Artemis missions to the Moon, beginning with Artemis I. The core stage includes the liquid hydrogen tank and liquid oxygen tank, four RS-25 engines, as well as the computers, electronics, and avionics that serve as the “brains” of the rocket.

The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will test the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon. Under the Artemis program, NASA is working to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon to pave the way for sustainable exploration at the Moon and future missions to Mars.

For more information about the Green Run test series, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/artemisprogram/greenrun

On Friday (March 19), the Soyuz MS-17 crew spacecraft, which brought three Expedition 64 crewmembers to the International Space Station in October 2020, will be relocated from the Russian Rassvet module to the Poisk module.

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov will board the Soyuz and undock from the Rassvet module at 12:38 p.m. EDT (1638 GMT). The crew will then dock the Soyuz with Poisk at 1:07 p.m. EDT (1707 GMT).

NASA TV will provide live coverage beginning at 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT). You can watch it live here in the window above, courtesy of NASA, or directly via NASA TV.

Related: The International Space Station: Inside and Out (Infographic)

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Three spaceships are pictured attached to different ports on the International Space Station: Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus NG-15 cargo ship at the Harmony module (left), the Soyuz MS-17 crew spacecraft docked to the Rassvet module (center) and the Progress 77 cargo craft at the Pirs docking compartment (right). The space station was flying 261 miles (420 kilometers) above the Bay of Bengal when this photo was taken, on Feb. 23, 2021. (Image credit: NASA)

Three residents of the International Space Station will take a spin around their orbital neighborhood in the Soyuz MS-17 on Friday, March 19, relocating the spacecraft to prepare for the arrival of the next set of crew members. Live coverage on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website will begin at 12:15 p.m. EDT.

Expedition 64 Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA and Commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, both of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, will undock from the Earth-facing port of the station’s Rassvet module at 12:38 p.m. and dock again at the space-facing Poisk docking port at 1:07 p.m.

The relocation will free up the Rassvet port for the docking of another Soyuz vehicle, designated Soyuz MS-18, which will carry three Expedition 65 crew members to the station next month. NASA’s Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos’ Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov are scheduled to launch to the station Friday, April 9, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

This will be the 15th overall Soyuz port relocation and the first since August 2019.

Rubins, Ryzhikov, and Kud-Sverchkov will return to Earth April 17 in the Soyuz MS-17 that carried them to the space station in October 2020.

Get breaking news, images and features from the space station on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

NASA will hold a news conference on Tuesday, March 23, to preview the upcoming flight tests of its Ingenuity Mars helicopter. Ingenuity hitched a ride to the Red Planet with the agency’s Perseverance rover and will soon attempt the first flight through another world’s atmosphere.

Tune in Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) to hear the Ingenuity and Perseverance teams discuss their plans for the helicopter’s first test flights. You can watch it live here in the window above, courtesy of NASA TV, or directly via the agency’s website.

Related: The first helicopter on Mars phones home after Perseverance rover landing

NASA will hold a virtual media briefing at 1:30 p.m. EDT (10:30 a.m. PDT) Tuesday, March 23, to discuss upcoming activities for the agency’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter. The teams operating Ingenuity and NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover have chosen the flight zone where the helicopter will attempt the first powered, controlled flights on another planet.

The briefing will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website and will livestream on multiple agency social media platforms, including the YouTube and Facebook channels for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Briefing participants include:

Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, NASA HeadquartersBobby Braun, director for planetary science, JPLJ. (Bob) Balaram, Ingenuity chief engineer, JPLHavard Grip, Ingenuity chief pilot, JPLFarah Alibay, Perseverance integration lead for Ingenuity, JPL

To participate in the briefing by telephone, reporters must provide their name and affiliation by 11:30 a.m. EDT (8:30 a.m. PDT) Tuesday, March 23, to Rexana Vizza at rexana.v.vizza@jpl.nasa.gov.

Media and the public also may ask questions on social media during the briefing using #MarsHelicopter.

Ingenuity’s test flights are expected to begin no earlier than the first week of April. The exact timing of the first flight will remain fluid as engineers work out details on the timeline for deployments and vehicle positioning of Perseverance and Ingenuity. Photos showing some of the progress are available on Perseverance’s raw images website.

Perseverance – with Ingenuity attached to its belly – landed in Jezero Crater Feb. 18. Ingenuity is a technology demonstration with a limited test flight duration of up to 31 days (30 Mars days, or sols). The rover will deploy the helicopter and provide environmental monitoring and imaging support. It also hosts Ingenuity’s base station, enabling communication with mission controllers on Earth.

Find out what the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station are up to by tuning in to the “ISS Live” broadcast. Hear conversations between the crew and mission controllers on Earth and watch them work inside the U.S. segment of the orbiting laboratory. When the crew is off duty, you can enjoy live views of Earth from Space. You can watch and listen in the window below, courtesy of NASA.

“Live video from the International Space Station includes internal views when the crew is on-duty and Earth views at other times. The video is accompanied by audio of conversations between the crew and Mission Control. This video is only available when the space station is in contact with the ground. During ‘loss of signal’ periods, viewers will see a blue screen.

“Since the station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes, it experiences a sunrise or a sunset about every 45 minutes. When the station is in darkness, external camera video may appear black, but can sometimes provide spectacular views of lightning or city lights below.”

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