NASA tests the world’s largest rocket booster- 2018 Mars spaceflight

[Peter1469]

NASA tests the world’s largest rocket booster- 2018 Mars spaceflight

3.6 million pounds of thrust.

After an hour delay because of a glitch with the ground computer system, the booster fired horizontally for just over two minutes at a test site in Utah, burning through 5.5 tons of propellant per second, shooting flames out at three times the speed of sound, with temperatures that were expected to reach 3,700 degrees. The booster test comes ahead of the rocket's first mission, planned for 2018, when it would launch the unmanned Orion spacecraft on a three-week journey that would take it around the moon.

After the test, officials at NASA and Orbital ATK, the Dulles-based contractor that built the booster, said it was a success.


“Seeing this test today, and experiencing the sound and feel of approximately 3.6 million pounds of thrust, helps us appreciate the progress we’re making to advance human exploration and open new frontiers for science and technology missions in deep space,” William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA, said in a statement.


"That rumble that you get is awesome," Charlie Precourt,vice president and general manager of Orbital ATK’s Propulsion Systems Division, said on NASA TV. "We made it through exactly what we were looking for."

Read more at the link.

[Don]

Awesome. I would love to see one of those tests in person. I think there will be three of those rocket boosters to get the Orion capsule up.

[jimmyz]

"All I was doing was crawling along looking for crickets and beetles for dinner and that thing blasts me. Blarg!" ~ a random now burnt to a cinder lizard