NASA Barge Pegasus Docked In Alabama | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-07.07.25

Airborne-NextGen-07.08.25

AirborneUnlimited-07.09.25

Airborne-FlightTraining-07.10.25

AirborneUnlimited-07.11.25

Sat, May 20, 2017

NASA Barge Pegasus Docked In Alabama

Brought SLS Components From New Orleans To Marshall Space Flight Center

The barge Pegasus, carrying a structural test version of the massive SLS rocket's engine section, arrived at the Marshall Space Flight Center on May 15 after a 1,240-mile voyage from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The barge left Michoud on April 28. The delivery -- the first of major SLS hardware from Michoud to Marshall -- marks a critical milestone toward the first integrated flight of the SLS rocket and NASA's Orion spacecraft, and a step closer to sending humans to deep space destinations, including Mars.

NASA modified Pegasus to accommodate the SLS rocket's core stage, increasing the barge's length and weight-carrying capacity. The SLS rocket's core stage is 50 feet longer than the space shuttle external tank.

The first of four core stage test articles manufactured at Michoud scheduled to be delivered to Marshall for testing, the engine section will house four RS-25 engines and connect the core stage to the SLS rocket's two solid rocket motors. The structural qualification test article was designed with the same specifications as the engine section that will fly on first integrated flight of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft.

At Marshall, the test articles will undergo extensive testing. Engineers will push, pull, and bend the hardware to ensure it can withstand the extreme forces the rocket will experience during launch, liftoff and flight. The tests along with analytical models and other data will show that the design of the engine section is structurally sound. In the future media will have the opportunity to tour the engine section test stand and view the engine section structural test article that Pegasus delivered.

(Images provided with NASA news release)

FMI: go.nasa.gov/2opxZE2

Advertisement

More News

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (07.11.25)

“Honored to accept this mission. Time to take over space. Let’s launch.” Source: SecTrans Sean Duffy commenting after President Donald Trump appointed U.S. Secret>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (07.11.25): Permanent Echo

Permanent Echo Radar signals reflected from fixed objects on the earth's surface; e.g., buildings, towers, terrain. Permanent echoes are distinguished from “ground clutter&rd>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (07.11.25)

Aero Linx: European Hang Gliding and Paragliding Union (EHPU) The general aim of the EHPU is to promote and protect hang gliding and paragliding in Europe. In order to achieve this>[...]

NTSB Final Report: Schweizer SGS 2-33A

Glider Encountered A Loss Of Lift And There Was Not Sufficient Altitude To Reach The Airport Analysis: The flight instructor reported that while turning final, the glider encounter>[...]

NTSB Prelim: Aeronca 7AC

Airplane Climbed To 100 Ft Above Ground Level, At Which Time The Airplane Experienced A Total Loss Of Engine Power On May 24, 2025, at 1300 eastern daylight time, an Aeronca 7AC, N>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC