See NASA’s massive SLS moon rocket go off (and stop early)

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 made noise with a fiery SLS test on Saturday.

NASA was nearing the end of the Green Run test series that tests the main stage before actually launching this rock into the future. The agency describes the main stage as “the backbone of the SLS rocket.”

The eighth part of the series of tests was scheduled for Saturday, when NASA started a scorching fire. NASA TV provided live coverage that showed the four huge engines in motion. You can review the action below.

The test was designed to simulate the launch conditions of RS-25 engines and was to last up to eight minutes. NASA completed the test early, just over a minute after the start of the main event. The engines seemed to stop safely.

“The teams are evaluating the data on premature engine shutdown”, NASA tweeted shortly after the test.

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. Despite the brevity of the center stage test, it was quite a sight to see the pumping power of the raging engines.

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 impacts Coronavirus pandemic.

Beyond Apollo: See NASA aim for the moon with Artemis 2024

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The SLS Green Run test took place at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, and it came after NASA fixed an unexpected issue with a previous test, a wet dress rehearsal that “marked the first time the cryogenic liquid propellant or super cold was fully charged and drained from the two huge tanks on the main stage of the SLS. “

The wet dress rehearsal was also halted early, but NASA traced the issue to a timing issue which was corrected later. After analyzing what happened with this latest test, NASA is hopeful that it 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.