NASA has installed software designed to facilitate the flight and guidance of the Space Launch System rocket, which will lift the Orion spacecraft for future exploration missions.
Engineers from the agency's Alabama-based Marshall Space Flight Center are running tests and providing final checkout support to help the software achieve certification, NASA said Tuesday.
The software, which engineers installed upon SLS's assembly at Kennedy Space Center, is designed to help the rocket fly and steer across both launch and ascent phases. The Orion-SLS combo will undergo more tests between assembly completion and launch.
“The mission certification and performance certification tests are the next step for the rocket’s software on the path to launch and flight ahead of Artemis I," said David Beaman, systems engineering and integration manager for SLS.
The Artemis I mission, scheduled for late 2021, will have an uncrewed Orion spacecraft perform a lunar flyby. The application software for the mission's corresponding flight computer also completed tests at the system integration laboratory within Marshall.
NASA seeks to revive manned space exploration through the Artemis program.