NASA is getting ready to launch its massive, fully expendable rocket for the first crewed flight to the Moon since Apollo. The agency’s new era of spaceflight comes with a few parts from its past, specifically three rocket engines that have previously flown on space shuttle missions.
NASA rolled out the fully stacked Space Launch System (SLS) rocket onto the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center on January 17. The agency is aiming to launch its Artemis 2 mission as early as February 6, sending a team of astronauts back to lunar space for the first time in over half a century.
The 5.75-million-pound SLS is fitted with four RS-25 engines, three of which are upgraded space shuttle main engines, while one engine will be making its launch debut. L3 Harris Technologies’ Aerojet Rocketdyne division built the engines for NASA’s iconic shuttle program, which ran from 1981 to 2011. Each engine has already played a role in the shuttle program and will now help power NASA’s next leap to the Moon.
Engine history
All four RS-25 engines that will launch SLS for Artemis 2 have at least one component that flew aboard the first space shuttle mission in 1981. STS-1, the maiden voyage of space shuttle Columbia, marked the first orbital flight of a reusable spacecraft. The mission lasted for two days, successfully testing all shuttle systems.
RS-25 engine 2047 (E2047) has 15 space missions under its belt, including the final space shuttle mission in July 2011. In September 2023, E2047 was confirmed as the first RS-25 engine installed in the SLS core stage for the Artemis 2 mission.
On the other hand, E2059 was the last of 15 RS-25 engines to make the 700-mile (1,130-kilometer) journey from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi. E2059 helped power the shuttle Atlantis on three missions, including two to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2007 and 2008 and one to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.
Space shuttle main engine 2061 was also part of Endeavour‘s mission to deliver the Tranquility node and cupola to the ISS in 2010 as part of the shuttle’s 32nd mission to the space station. The refurbished engine also took part in the penultimate space shuttle mission and the 25th and final flight of space shuttle Endeavour. The flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the ISS.
Fly again
Taken together, the three previously flown RS-25 engines being used for Artemis 2 have combined for 22 previous missions.
SLS Block 1, which launched the Artemis 1 mission in November 2022 and is poised to launch Artemis 2 and 3, is powered by four RS-25 engines in its core stage, along with two solid rocket boosters. NASA has a total of four contracts with Aerojet Rocketdyne for the reused RS-25 engines before switching to upgraded and freshly made engines.
One final note: Since SLS is a fully expendable rocket, these four RS-25 engines will end up at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean roughly 10 minutes after launch, never to be used again. Sad, but true.
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