NASA and ATK [ATK] successfully completed the first test for the space agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) booster program, according to company program managers.
The demonstration, held March 28 at ATK’s Promontory, Utah, test facility, was a key avionics and controls test designated Flight Control Test-1 (FCT-1). FCT-1 included a fully integrated flight heritage thrust vector control (TVC) system with the new SLS booster avionics subsystem, according to a company statement.
There will be a second and final FCT, FCT-2, Sept. 25, according to ATK deputy program manager for next-generation booster Harry Reed. Reed said in a telephone interview recently FCT-2 will “ring out this control system a little bit more.”
Paul Karner, ATK program manager for SLS avionics and control systems, said the next “big” test, Qualification Motor-1 (QM-1), is scheduled for May 2013.
“Next test (QM-1) will be the big milestone, the avionics and control system actually being in control of a static motor,” Karner said in an interview. “We’re taking a little bit more of a ‘test like you fly, fly like you test’ approach where we’ll have the actual avionics and control system actually ‘flying the motor’ while it is in the test stand.”
Karner said once ATK gets through QM-1, the company will be ready to support the flight test, which is scheduled for 2016. He said he expects to have the hardware ready to go by 2015.
The avionics subsystem is responsible for booster integration, nozzle steering and booster separation, according to a statement. FCT-1 marks the first time a new avionics subsystem interfaced with, and controlled, a previously developed TVC system, performing an SLS launch simulation, according to a statement.
In addition to a new avionics subsystem, FCT-1 included new electronic ground support equipment, which monitored and coordinated activities between the test facilities, avionics subsystem and TVC system, according to a statement.