NASA's SLS Rocket Main Element Enters Final Preparation Stage

NASA prepares the last element of the SLS rocket (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA The United States Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) is preparing an important element of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is a link between SLS and Orion.

From the latest information shared, NASA says that the Orion (OSA) stage adapter, the smallest major element on the SLS rocket, has been rotated to be paired with other components. This component is diaphragm.

OSA leader Brent Gaddes says that diaphragm is a composite structure in the shape of a dome. This component will keep the volume pushed from below Orion to the transient cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS).

This serves as a barrier between the two, preventing highly flammable hydrogen gas that can get out of rocket propellant tanks piled up under the Orion spacecraft and its crew before and during launch, Gaddes said.

The entire installation of these components will be carried out at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Hutsville, Alabama. Later, the integrated SLS rocket element will be sent to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for further testing.

For information, OSA is a ring-shaped connector connecting the Orion aircraft with the ICPS of the SLS rocket. This adapter has a height of 1,524 meters with a weight of 816,466 kilograms.

This adapter will generate a thrust of more than 8.8 million pounds to carry the Orion plane flying around the moon. Orion will be used on the Artemis mission, the first woman's landing on the Moon.