CHELSEA, MA—Stopping in his tracks upon discovering his entire block lined with empty bins, local man Roger Peters reported Thursday that, shit, last night was trash night. “Aw goddamnit,” said the 35-year-old, adding that he must be a total moron given that trash night happens every Wednesday and that he’s lived in his house seven years. “Now my garbage is just gonna pile up for a whole fucking week. Son of a bitch. I mean, Jesus Christ—what was I thinking?” At press time, Peters had taken some small consolation in the fact he could probably sneak some of the trash into the recycling bin, which will get picked up tomorrow.
The controller serves as the “brain” of the engine, communicating with SLS flight computers to ensure engines are performing at needed levels. The test marked another step toward the nation’s return to human deep-space exploration missions.
We launched a series of summer tests with a second flight controller unit hot fire at the end of May, then followed up with three additional tests. The flight controller tests are critical preparation for upcoming SLS flights to deep space– the uncrewed Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), which will serve as the first flight for the new rocket carrying an uncrewed Orion spacecraft, and EM-2, which will transport a crew of astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft.
Each SLS rocket is powered at launch by four RS-25 engines firing simultaneously and working in conjunction with a pair of solid rocket boosters. The engines generate a combined 2 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. With the boosters, total thrust at liftoff will exceed 8 million pounds!
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