UPDATE: New Date for SLS F-1 Hot Fire Media Opportunity

What: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has started a new series of test firings of the gas generator in the F-1 engine. NASA and industry will use the information gathered from the series of F-1 engine tests to develop new advanced propulsion systems to take humans beyond low-Earth orbit on the Space Launch System, a new heavy-lift launch vehicle managed at Marshall.

The F-1 engine launched the Saturn V rocket that sent humans to the moon. The gas generator is the part of the engine responsible for supplying power to drive the giant F-1 turbopump. The gas generator components are often among the first parts designed on a new rocket engine because they are key components for determining the engine’s size. A Marshall engineering team removed gas generators from an F-1 engine stored at Marshall, and another from an engine stored at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington that was in near-pristine condition. Test conductors will use modern instrumentation to record new information and data during the test firing of the refurbished gas generator.

When & Where: Thursday, Jan. 24

12:45 p.m. CT – Arrive at Redstone Arsenal Joint Visitor Center at Gate 9

1:00 p.m. CT – See F-1 engines at the Propulsion Research Development Lab and gain insight into the significance of the testing series

2:00 p.m. – Witness a real-time firing of the F-1 Gas Generator at the Test Stand 116

To attend: News media interested in attending the event should contact Kim Henry in Marshall’s Public & Employee Communications Office at 256-544-0034 no later than 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23. Media must report to the Redstone Arsenal Joint Visitor Center at Gate 9, Interstate 565 interchange at Rideout Road/Research Park Boulevard at 12:45 p.m. Vehicles are subject to a security search at the gate. News media will need two photo identifications and proof of car insurance.

For more information on NASA’s Space Launch System, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/sls

For more information on the F-1 engine, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/history/f1_engine_new.html