How to watch NASA fire its massive SLS moon rocket tomorrow

One of The main NASA goals for 2021 is to launch Artemis I, an unequipped lunar mission meant to show that the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket can safely send humans to our lunar neighbor. But first, NASA plans to make some noise with a fiery SLS test on Saturday.

NASA is nearing the end of the Green Run test series that puts the main stage – which the agency describes as “the backbone of the SLS rocket” – to the test before actually launching this rock into the future.

The eighth and final part of the series of tests is scheduled for Saturday, January 16, when NASA starts a scorching fire. NASA TV will provide live coverage starting at 1:20 p.m. PT. Two-hour test windows open at 2 p.m.

“The next hot-shot test will simultaneously fire all four RS-25 engines on the stage for eight minutes to simulate the performance of the main stage at launch,” NASA said in a Jan. 5 statement.

SLS has experienced delays during its development, but it is still at the heart of NASA’s ambitious plans to bring humans back to the moon by 2024 through the Artemis program. A report from last year questions this date based on program costs, SLS setbacks, and programming impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Test fires are a lot of fun, as we saw last year when a The SLS booster lit up the Utah desert and turned the sand into glass.

The SLS Green Run test will take place at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, and it comes after NASA fixed an unexpected issue with a previous test, a wet dress rehearsal that “marked the first time that both fully loaded and drained. huge tanks of the SLS central floor. “

The wet dress rehearsal ended a bit early, but NASA traced the problem to a timing issue which was corrected later and shouldn’t affect the burning fire. If all goes well, NASA will still be on track for a possible late 2021 launch of Artemis I.

Each successful test puts the moon a little closer to human hands.