Video: SFI highlights of QM-2 static test fire
PROMONTORY, Utah — On Tuesday, June 28, NASA and Orbital ATK conducted a static test fire of the second five-segment Qualification Motor (QM-2) in order to validate a lower-temperature limit for the booster design planned to help propel the space agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) spaceward. SpaceFlight Insider was there to capture the bright and loud moment.
The test occurred at 9:05 a.m. MDT (15:05 GMT). Over the previous month, the solid rocket booster was cooled down to an internal temperature of just 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 degrees Celsius). This was to test the lower-end temperature limit of the booster’s design.
While this was the second of the qualification motors, it was the fifth test firing of the five-segment booster design overall. Between 2009 and 2011, three Demonstration Motors (DM) were tested. After the results of the tests came in, NASA ordered then-ATK to perform a second series of tests culminating in QM-1 and QM-2. The former occurred in March 2015 and tested the booster at an internal temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 degrees Celsius)—the upper-temperature limit.
The next time this booster design will fire will be in 2018 as part of a pair strapped to either the side of the core of NASA’s giant SLS. Together, the two boosters will produce 7.2 million pounds (32 MN) of thrust at liftoff and help send an uncrewed Orion capsule toward the Moon.
Video courtesy of SpaceFlight Insider
Derek Richardson
Derek Richardson has a degree in mass media, with an emphasis in contemporary journalism, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. While at Washburn, he was the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also has a website about human spaceflight called Orbital Velocity. You can find him on twitter @TheSpaceWriter.
