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| A-2 Test Control Center at SSC. NASA photo |
NASA has provided a year-end wrap-up of the work that's been done on the J-2X engine, which will power the heavy-lift Space Launch System's second stage. It's the first human-rated rocket engine to be developed in 40 years, and NASA and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne are setting new records in rocket engine development with the first J-2X engine unit, E10001. During the year it went through its first 10 tests probing engine performance and accumulated a total hot-fire test run time of 1,040 seconds at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss. "E10001 got to 100 percent power in just four tests and achieved a full flight-duration test of 500 seconds in its eighth test, quicker than any other U.S. engine program in history," said Tom Byrd, J-2X engine lead in the SLS Liquid Engines Office. The J-2X engine test program will need only five percent the number of tests required to develop the original J-2 engine. (Source:
NASA, 12/21/11)
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