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Volume 17 Issue 3 www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis March 2021 SLS Green Run hot fire targeted for March 18 ASA is targeting Thursday, March 18 for the finishing up booster assembly. After the core stage ar- second hot fire of the Space Launch System rives, it will be lifted and placed between the two boosters N(SLS) rocket’s core stage at Stennis Space and attached at the core stage engine and intertank sec- Center. tions. Other parts of the rocket and the Orion spacecraft After performing tests to demonstrate that a recently are also at Kennedy and are being prepared for final repaired liquid oxygen pre-valve is working, the team assembly and integration. continued to prepare the core stage, its four RS-25 engines, and the B-2 Test Stand for the second hot fire NASA’s SLS rocket is the most powerful rocket in the at Stennis. Late world, built last week, the to send both team pow- astronauts ered up the aboard Orion core stage and supplies and con- on mis- ducted a final sions to the check of all Moon and its systems. beyond. The On March Green Run is 16, two days a compre- before the hensive test targeted test, of the SLS they will core stage, power up the a complex stage once new rocket again, start- stage that not ing the clock only includes for the sec- four RS-25 ond hot fire engines and of the stage’s enormous four RS-25 propellant engines. tanks that hold more The hot fire than 700,000 is the last gallons of test before super cold the Artemis The Space Launch System core stage is seen installed on the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center, where propellant, I core stage it is undergoing a comprehensive test of its integrated systems prior to use on the Artemis I mission. but also flight is shipped computers to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center for assembly and and avionics that control the first eight minutes of flight. integration with the rest of the rocket’s major elements The Green Run test series will help validate that the SLS and the Orion spacecraft. core stage is ready for its first flight on Artemis I and subsequent missions. Exploration Ground Systems teams at Kennedy have stacked all parts of the solid rocket boosters for Artemis For more information about SLS Green Run, visit I in the Vehicle Assembly Building (see page 4) and are https://www.nasa.gov/artemisprogram/greenrun Page 2 LAGNIAPPE March 2021 ou ever play that “Where were you when ...” The history-making day at Stennis is just one instance game? You know, like where were you when of the prominence of women in NASA. There are Y9/11 happened? Where were you when Prin- others to note for Women’s History Month 2021 – a cess Diana died? Where were you when the Saints won recent 60 Minutes segment that highlighted two women the Superbowl? WHO DAT! WHO DAT!! leaders in NASA; the naming of the NASA Headquar- ters Building for the first African American female Here is a new one for you – Where were you Aug. 16, engineer in NASA; and the agency commitment to 2012? Ol‘ Gator remembers the day well. It was one send the first women to the Moon on the Artemis III of those “cool” August days on the Gulf Coast – high mission. Stennis has added to the list as well – recently of about 86 degrees and humidity just below 90 per- naming the first woman to its front office team. cent. It felt a little like a late Deep South fall. Ark! There is work to do, but women are making strides. It also felt like history in the making at Stennis Space Since Sally Ride became the first American woman to Center. The nation’s largest propulsion test site marked fly to space in 1983, 62 more females have made the a trio of historic milestones that day – the first J-2X journey. Forty-eight have been American women. engine test at Stennis conducted by a female engineer, the first two large-engine tests conducted simultane- Not so many years since women were routinely told ously by Stennis teams and the first instance of two they had no place in “a man’s world” of science and female engineers conducting tests on the same day. space, they are making their place within that very world. It reminds me of what my Grannygator used to It has been a long time since high school math, but say, “Just tell me what a man can do that a woman can’t 294,000 pounds of thrust for the J-2X engine plus do,” she would challenge. “Go ahead – I’m waiting.” 340,000 pounds of thrust for the AJ26 engine adds up to uh, uh – well, we can just say it totals a whole lot of Well, Grannygator may be waiting – but women cer- Girl Power. Ark! tainly are not. They are definitely on the move. NASA is planning to send the first women and next man to the Moon as part of the Artemis program, named for the twin sister of Apollo and the goddess of the Moon and the hunt.next man walk on the Moon. These NASA images portray the Greek goddess and highlight the central role women will play in the new program.To download the mobile and background images, visit online here. Lagniappe is published monthly by the Office of Communications at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center. Access monthly copies at: www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/news/publications/index.html Contact info – (phone) 228-688-3749; (email) [email protected]; (mail) NASA OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS, Attn: LAGNIAPPE, Mail code IA00, Building 1100 Room 304, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529 Subscribe at: https://lists.nasa.gov/mailman/listinfo/stennis-space-center-lagniappe Managing Editor – Valerie Buckingham Editor – Lacy Thompson Staff Photographer – Danny Nowlin Page 3 LAGNIAPPE March 2021 This image was captured while NASA’s Perseverance rover drove on Mars for the first time on March 4, 2021. One of Perseverance’s Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) captured this image as the rover completed a short traverse and turn from its landing site in Jezero Crater. NASA Perseverance lands, transmits high-definition panoramic view of landing site he largest, most advanced rover NASA has sent to astrobiologist is scheduled to conduct a two-year science inves- sphere during entry, and the craft’s navigation system autono- “Perseverance is more than a rover, and more than this amaz- another world touched down on Mars on Feb. 18, after tigation of Mars’ Jezero Crater. A fundamental part of its mis- mously guided it during final descent. The data from both are ing collection of men and women that built it and got us here,” Ta 203-day journey traversing 293 million miles. Confir- sion is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient expected to help future human missions land on other worlds said John McNamee, project manager of the Mars 2020 Per- mation of the successful touchdown was announced in mis- microbial life. To that end, the Mars Sample Return campaign more safely and with larger payloads. severance rover mission at JPL. “It is even more than the 10.9 sion control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern will allow scientists on Earth to study samples collected by million people who signed up to be part of our mission. This California at 2:55 p.m. CST. Perseverance to search for definitive signs of past life, using On the surface of Mars, Perseverance’s science instruments mission is about what humans can achieve when they perse- instruments too large and complex to send to the Red Planet. will have an opportunity to scientifically shine. These include vere. We made it this far. Now, watch us go.” NASA named the landing site of the rover “Octavia E. Butler zoomable science cameras to create high-resolution, color 3D Landing,” after the science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. “Because of today’s exciting events, the first pristine samples panoramas of the Martian landscape, a pulsed laser to study A primary objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is from carefully documented locations on another planet are an- the chemistry of rocks and sediment, and a microphone to astrobiology research, including the search for signs of ancient Packed with groundbreaking technology, the Mars 2020 mis- other step closer to being returned to Earth, ...” said Thomas help scientists better understand the property of the rocks, microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology sion launched July 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA. “We including their hardness. and past climate and be the first mission to collect and cache Station in Florida. The Perseverance rover mission marks an don’t know what these pristine samples from Mars will tell us. Martian rock and regolith, paving the way for human explora- ambitious first step in the effort to collect Mars samples and But what they could tell us is monumental – including that life The rover chassis is home to three science instruments as well, tion of the Red Planet. return them to Earth. might have once existed beyond Earth.” including the first ground-penetrating radar on the surface of Mars, which will be used to determine how different layers of Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, will “This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the Some 28 miles wide, Jezero Crater sits on the western edge of the Martian surface formed over time.

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