♪
Good morning. My name is Nick Nugent.
I'm a project engineer here at the NASA
Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
We're here on the tarmac
of the historic B-2 Test Stand.
The large steel structure behind me
is called the interstage simulator.
It was brought over here on September 21st
via barge from the Michoud Assembly Facility
after its major structural steel work was completed.
The interstage simulator will be used
for the EUS, the Exploration Upper Stage,
Green Run that will occur here at Stennis.
The Exploration Upper Stage, or EUS, is going
to be the Space Launch System's new upper stage.
The Exploration Upper Stage sits
on top of the core stage.
And after the solid rocket boosters are jettisoned
and the core stage burn is complete, this takes
the service module and the Orion capsule
further on its journey to the Moon.
It's coming here to the Stennis Space Center
to go through a series of green run tests.
There'll be a series of tests, everything from
avionics power up that will culminate
ultimately in a hot fire, just like we did
with the core stage for Green Run.
The interstage simulator provides
an environmental shelter for
the lower half of the EUS vehicle that allows
the avionics, the propulsion system
and other sensors inside there to be
environmentally protected while
it's outside here at Stennis for the Green Run.
The top of the interstage serves
as the thrust take out.
So that's where the thrust is actually transferred
from the vehicle back to the test stand.
Now that the interstage simulator
is here at Stennis
the teams on site will finish it.
So part of that finishing process
is installing all of the piping that goes inside,
all of the different tubing
and wiring connections that interface
to the facility and the rocket.
And then finally, we will blast
and paint it before installing it
into the test stand.
The Exploration Upper Stage Green Run
testing here at Stennis is very important
to the NASA mission.
As NASA looks to gain a better
understanding of the universe,
important projects like this need to occur.
As we look to make a sustainable presence
on the Moon and then continue
into deep space and to Mars,
advancing the technology
and making the missions occur are very important.
Stennis is on the front lines
of doing that with our rocket engine testing,
our component testing,
and then also our stage testing
like we did with the Core Stage Green Run.
It's an exciting time to be here.
♪