A test of a new rocket motor for NASA’s future moon missions went awry this week. The booster, known as the Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE), was designed to provide more thrust and allow for heavier loads on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
The two-minute ground test, conducted by Northrop Grumman, showed promising results at first but experienced a problem late in the burn. Debris flew out of the nozzle, and flames rippled through the exhaust plume. Despite the issue, no one was hurt during the test.
Engineers did not immediately acknowledge the problem during the livestream broadcast, which caught the incident on camera. Northrop Grumman later confirmed that a hardware issue occurred late in the burn, but details about what went wrong were not provided.
The anomaly raises questions about the reliability of the new hardware, which is intended to send astronauts to space and potentially to Mars. The BOLE motor is a major redesign of the SLS rocket’s boosters, swapping out old parts for lightweight materials and new fuel.
The test was meant to demonstrate the limits of the motor’s design, understand stress and strain on different materials, and see if components could withstand extreme conditions. Northrop Grumman officials say the data from the BOLE test will help improve the design.
The new boosters are not expected to fly until at least the late 2030s, with proposed budget cuts potentially halting production after Artemis III, the first human moon landing since Apollo 17. The White House has expressed interest in using commercial systems instead of SLS.
Source: https://mashable.com/article/nasa-moon-rocket-bole-test-anomaly-video