The exlosive test firing of the rocket was a resounding success. Image Credit: YouTube / NASA
The successful test saw the enormous booster put out a staggering 3.6 million pounds of thrust.
Part of NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS), the huge rocket was taken to the Utah desert, placed on its side and fired for a period of two minutes to simulate an actual launch. The heat it managed to generate during the test was so intense that it was enough to turn the desert sand in to glass.
The space agency is planning to use the new rocket to achieve its future goals of sending astronauts both to Mars in the 2030s and to an asteroid located in near-Earth orbit within the next decade.
"The work being done around the country today to build SLS is laying a solid foundation for future exploration missions, and these missions will enable us to pioneer far into the solar system," said NASA associate administrator William Gerstenmaier.
"The teams are doing tremendous work to develop what will be a national asset for human exploration and potential science missions."
Conventional boosters still lead to the problem of space junk in our atmosphere. Making future missions all the more hazardous due to debris, I think this problem should be addressed sooner than later. It is very impressive to watch though.
Conventional boosters still lead to the problem of space junk in our atmosphere. Making future missions all the more hazardous due to debris, I think this problem should be addressed sooner than later. It is very impressive to watch though. As the SLS boosters are never going to enter orbit, they will not add to the space junk problem.
Conventional boosters still lead to the problem of space junk in our atmosphere. As the SLS boosters are never going to enter orbit, they will not add to the space junk problem. Not to mention that space junk is most definitely NOT in our atmosphere.
I see Kieth over at the Nasa Watch site disputes this claim . [ Aerojet, Wikipedia "Between Sept. 25, 1965 and June 17, 1967, three static test firings were done. SL-1 was fired at night, and the flame was clearly visible from Miami 50 km away, producing over 3 million pounds of thrust. SL-2 was fired with similar success and relatively uneventful. SL-3, the third and what would be the final test rocket, used a partially submerged nozzle and produced 2,670,000 kgf thrust, making it the largest solid-fuel rocket ever." Keith's note: That picture shows 5.88 million pounds of good old 1960s Aeroj... [More]
I see Kieth over at the Nasa Watch site disputes this claim . [ Aerojet, Wikipedia "Between Sept. 25, 1965 and June 17, 1967, three static test firings were done. SL-1 was fired at night, and the flame was clearly visible from Miami 50 km away, producing over 3 million pounds of thrust. SL-2 was fired with similar success and relatively uneventful. SL-3, the third and what would be the final test rocket, used a partially submerged nozzle and produced 2,670,000 kgf thrust, making it the largest solid-fuel rocket ever." Keith's note: That picture shows 5.88 million pounds of good old 1960s Aeroj... [More]
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