The Mississippi Enterprise for Technology's digest of business, science and technology news from NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
J-2X assembly in full swing
STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - Assembly of the first J-2X, called engine 10001, is in full swing at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss. Managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center, the J-2X engine is a rocket engine with the performance characteristics to power the upper-stage of a heavy-lift launch vehicle. Fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, the J-2X engine will generate 294,000 pounds of thrust to propel a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit to the moon, an asteroid, or other celestial destination. This week, the Stennis Space Center's A-2 test stand was certified ready to support J-2X development testing. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif. is the prime contractor for the design and manufacture of the J-2X. Hot fire testing of Engine 10001 is targeted for later this summer at Stennis. (Source: NASA, 03/24/11)