NASA Will Fire Up Most Powerful Rocket Ever Built On Earth On January 17

NASA aims to ignite what will be the most powerful rocket ever built on Earth on January 17, the space agency confirmed in a recent note. Once in action, the Space Launch System (SLS) will serve as the carrier for NASA astronauts to the moon under the space agency’s Artemis lunar missions.

NASA SLS Rocket Booster test on September 2, 2020. (Image: NASA)

NASA has scheduled the first firing of the SLS boosters on the date. For now, only the liquid fuel engines at the core of the rocket will be tested. Testing of the solid fuel boosters that will help provide the initial thrust to leave the lower spheres of Earth will be conducted later.

The test will be the final one in a?series of eight, called the “SLS Green Run.” Julie Bassler, SLS Stages manager at NASA’s Marshall Sprace Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said in the statement - "Data from all the tests to date has given us the confidence to proceed with the hot fire."

The hot fire will take place at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. During the test, NASA will fire all four of the core stage’s RS-25 engines simultaneously for up to eight minutes. The idea is to simulate the core stage’s performance during launch for missions.

Post the firing test at Stennis, NASA will refurbish and ship the core stage for SLS to its Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At the site, it will assemble the stage with the other parts of the rocket and load its Orion spacecraft on it. This would mark the beginning of the first mission of NASA’s Artemis program.?

NASA Space Launch System (SLS Rocket) // courtesy - NASA

NASA says that the Space Launch System or SLS rocket boosters are the “largest, most powerful boosters ever built for flight.” More than 75 percent of the thrust needed to launch future deep space missions by NASA will be provided by the two boosters on the rocket. The SLS hence, plays a key role in NASA’s plans. “SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon on a single mission,” it affirms.

During its earlier test, NASA tested the core stage’s cryogenic storage capabilities by fully loading and draining liquid propellant from the stage’s two immense tanks. The test was called the wet dress rehearsal and was conducted on December 20.