NASA’s Ares I and Ares V boosters will both depend on the J-2X upper stage engine – key hardware for NASA’s Constellation Program.

On May 8, the space agency announced that nine tests of heritage J-2 engine components have successfully been completed. Those tests were performed from December to May at the NASA Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

Engineers focused on testing the heritage J-2 “powerpack” – hardware that when fully assembled pumps liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the engine’s main combustion chamber to create thrust.

For you Apollo program experts, the J-2 may ring an engine bell or two!

The J-2 was a major element of the Saturn V rocket: Five J-2 engines were used in the second stage of the giant Saturn booster. One J-2 engine was used in the S-IVB, the third stage of the Saturn V. Also, a J-2 engine was utilized in the second stage of the Saturn 1B rocket.

Invaluable data

According to Mike Kynard, manager of the upper stage engine for the Ares Projects at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the recently completed series of tests is an important step in the evolution of the J-2X engine.

“We started with a number of objectives and questions we needed answers to as we work to complete designs of the J-2X engine. The data we have gained will be invaluable as we continue the design process,” Kynard noted in a NASA press statement.

Data gleaned by the tests will allow engineers to refine the design of the J-2X pumps and other engine components. Those refinements mean added performance for the new engine. The J-2X engine is being designed to produce 294,000 pounds of thrust; the original J-2 produced 230,000 pounds of thrust.

NASA’s Stennis will soon begin preparing for the next series of test stand evaluations, to help further J-2X engine development.

Managing the J-2X upper stage engine work is NASA’s Marshall, under the Constellation Program that is based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne Inc., of Canoga Park, California will design, develop, test and evaluate the J-2X engine under a NASA contract awarded in July 2007.