NASA's Software Answers Big Questions About Space and Earth

NASA’s next-generation Space Launch System (SLS) for deep space exploration consists of four RS-25 liquid rocket engines and two five-segment solid rocket boosters (SRBs). At ignition, the SRBs create a significant over-pressure event, known as the Ignition Over-Pressure (IOP) event. The IOP event experienced in the first space shuttle flight (STS-1) in 1981 damaged the space shuttle orbiter and motivated significant design changes to the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The RS-25 liquid rocket engines aboard the SLS, along with the SRBs, also create a very significant acoustic environment that, if not mitigated, can harm the SLS launch vehicle. An Ignition Over-Pressure/Sound Suppression (IOP/SS) water system was developed to reduce the amplitude of both the IOP event and the acoustic environment caused by the firing of the RS-25 engines and the SRBs.