The Core Stage consists of five major structural elements, the forward skirt, the liquid oxygen (LOX) tank, the intertank, the liquid hydrogen (LH2) tank, and the engine section.
New NASA graphic of the Core Stage(CS) of SLS(Space Launch System)
Just a few shots:
SLS Block-1 will look like this:
Here is the Intertank STA(Structural Test Article) just before being loaded onto the newly jumboised Pegasus barge and floated from Michoud to the Marshal Space Flight Center for structural testing. The intertank is the portion of the core stage that connects the LOX(Liquid Oxygen) and LH2(Liquid Hydrogen) tanks together. From Feb 22, 2018
And the ready for structural testing LOX STA(Liquid Oxygen Structural Test Article) built at Michoud Assembly Facility(MAF-where the Saturn-V was assembled and where Space Shuttle External Tanks were built) The tank has just been primered, the actual flight tanks will also be covered with Spray On Foam Insulation(SOFI)
Here is a massive LH2 tank in Cell D of the MAF. This is an actual flight tank.
Building 110 at Michoud, many tanks "In Process"
And the newly built 221 foot structural test stand (4693) where the LH2 tanks will be/have been tested. This test stand can apply millions of pounds of pull/push force and up to 340,000 pounds of shearing forces
and another
And Test Stand 4697 which tests the LOX tanks it's 85 feet tall and can exert over 9,000,000 pounds of push/pull forces and 340,000 pound shear stresses
Here is the Core Stage Forward Skirt Section. Lots of electronics in this section
and the electronics that occupy the inside of the Forward Skirt
Here is the Core Stage Engine Section. This is where the 4 RS25 (Space Shuttle Main Engines) will reside. They will produce over 2 million pounds of thrust on their own, from liftoff to MECO some 8-1/2 minutes later. 2 5 segment Solid Rocket Boosters will provide an additional 3.6 million pounds of thrust each(7.2 million pounds for the pair) for the first just over 2 minutes of flight, then they will jettison in a similar manner to the Space Shuttle stack.
The Engine Section of the Core Stage is the critical path of the core stage and is the most complicated section. Dozens of people are working this section 24 hours a day.
Areas of exposed cork applied to the outside of the Engine Section, the cork is a cheap ablative material that is used as all this hardware is "Expendable". The cork protects the Core Stage Engine Section from radiant and convective heat generated by the 2 Solid Rocket Boosters and the 4 RS-25s themselves.
Here is the Boat Tail Assembly. It is the very bottom part of the Core Stages Engine Section
I cant wait for a Corse Stage to ride Pegasus to Stennis Space Center where the Core Stage will be installed into the B-1 test stand for the SLS CS-1 Green-Run hotfire with 4 flight certified engines running all at once. The B-1/B-2 stand is the same stand where the 1st stage, the S1-C was Green-Run with all 5 F-1 engines burning at once, producing 7.6 million pounds of thrust.
peace
Hog
