We’re here in the propulsion
development lab here at Marshall
Space Flight Center, and this
is the F-1 engine.  Engine 6049
is what its destination is. It
was originally slated for the
Apollo 11 flight. However due
to an anomaly on a stage test,
it was recycled and planned for
a future test that was
cancelled so this is how we
were able to have it today for
our testing. After we
disassembled the first engine,
we started looking at components
that we would like to potentially
test, and the first part that we
looked at was the gas generator
system, which is the part that
drives the turbine on the engine
and provides the propellants to
the injector. We pulled the gas
generator off, which is located
here on the engine and disassembled
it and refurbished it, and its now
located in Test Stand 116 for
hot-fire testing. We will be
running the F-1 gas generator
test using a heritage gas
generator and running it with
liquid oxygen and RP-1. We took
this engine apart, and we’re
testing it to develop the
performance models and the
combustion stability models
as well as the combustion
properties so that we can
influence designs in the future
for the Space Launch System. For
future work in SLS, one of the
biggest things we’re looking at
is manufacturability. How can
we do things easier and cheaper
and faster. This provides a
great opportunity. Taking the F-1,
which is one of the biggest
engines, you know, that America
has ever made, to be able to take
that and look at the components
and look for how can we do rapid
prototyping, rapid manufacturing
to reinvent these or make design
changes. How do we speed up that
whole process when we are going
to design an engine and test it?
The data that we’re going to
collect from our F-1 gas generator
test program, we’ll be able to
share with the U.S. aerospace
industry to develop engines like
this in the future. The best part
of this project for me as been
being able to take an engine from
the start, take it down to its
bare bones, clean it up, go in
and inspect it as best we could,
and then reassemble it and see it
get to the point of being hot
fired. So this is the first time
that I’ve been involved in a test
like this. And knowing all the
history and seeing it come apart,
and being involved from the very
beginning, and seeing it go back
together and out on to the test
stand is something that I’m really
excited about. It’s the reason
that I came to work at NASA.
