Houston, we have a podcast.

Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center,

episode 338 certifying Artemis rocket engines.

I'm Gary Jordan and I'll be your host today.

On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists,

engineers, and astronauts all to let you know what's going on in the world of

human spaceflight and more. NASA is returning humans to the moon in a sustainable

way with Artemis missions.

The work we do will set the course for a future of humans on the lunar surface.

To get to the Moon, NASA is using the Space Launch System or the SLS, a massive rocket capable of delivering humans, elements of the gateway

lunar space station, rovers, cargo, and more to lunar orbit and the lunar surface.

The SLS main engines, the RS25s, have heritage back to the space shuttle program.

To achieve our exploration goals more rapidly, the first four Artemis missions will use

RS25 engines from the space shuttle program that have been upgraded to increase performance.

Now after those first four missions, what happens?

Well, NASA's main contractor for the engine, Aerojet Rocketdyne, was tasked to come up with a more sustainable approach

to RS25 manufacturing and potentially increasing performance even more.

NASA worked with Aeroget Rocketdyne to rigorously test these engines at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi

at the Fred Hayes test stand.

And recently they completed a gauntlet of 12 tests as part of a certification series,

though many more tests proceed to this

final stretch. On this episode we're joined by experts from NASA's Stennis Space

...