NASA Tests Massive Rocket Booster for Mars Missions

NASA has tested one of the solid rocket boosters that will power its new rocket, the Space Launch System, which the agency hopes will one day fly to Mars.

    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 5000kg of propellant per second, shooting flames out at three times the speed of sound, with temperatures that were expected to reach 2000 degrees celsius. The booster test comes ahead of the rocket's first mission, planned for 2018, when it will launch the unmanned Orion spacecraft on a three-week journey that will take it around the moon.

    After the test, officials at NASA and Orbital ATK, the contractor that built the booster, said it was a success. Combined, a two-minute test firing of the rocket's boosters, the largest and most powerful ever designed, would generate enough energy to power 92,000 homes for a day, NASA said. 

    The test follows a successful launch in 2014 of the Orion spacecraft, which flew further than any vehicle designed for humans had gone in more than 40 years. Ultimately, NASA plans to use the SLS to launch to Mars, but there have been some in US Congress who are pushing the agency to return to the moon instead.

Source ; QNA