Jacobs and NASA's Exploration Ground Systems Program announced on Wednesday that the motor segments of the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) arrived by rail at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on June 15, 2020.
"The arrival of the SRB components means we are getting very close to the stacking of flight hardware in the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at KSC," said Jacobs Critical Mission Solutions senior vice president Steve Arnette.
Jacobs' success has marked a critical step in NASA's preparations for Artemis I, which will extend the frontiers of human deep space exploration. The twin SRBs are part of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS).
The company’s team received the SRB hardware from Northrop Grumman. The segments were filled with solid propellant and will be transferred to Jacobs for integration. Each SRB contains five solid fuel segments, and each will provide 3.6 million pounds of maximum thrust.
Jacobs will inspect and conduct final processing, including installing sensors on the motor segments and transferring them to storage. The aft motor segments will be mated with the aft skirts and aft exit cones in build-up stands in the RPSF, to form the aft assembly for each SRB.
Once completed, the Aft Assemblies will be the first component of flight hardware to be stacked on the mobile launcher. Once all the SRB components are moved to the VAB and mated to the stack, then the SLS core stage rocket will be lowered onto the mobile launcher, between the SRBs.
Jacobs is NASA's largest services contractor and integrator of full lifecycle aerospace capability including design and construction; base, mission and launch operations; sustaining capital maintenance; and secure and intelligent asset management, development, modification and testing processes.
"Once our team has conducted final inspections, processing and mating of the SRB segments, they will transport everything to the VAB for stacking to begin," Arnette concluded.
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