NASA successfully fired an RS-25 rocket engine at the Stennis Space Center, the latest in the agency's journey towards the next stage of space exploration and the mission to Mars. The engine was fired for 500 seconds Thursday and is the same one that NASA plans on using when they send astronauts on the first deep-space mission, which will take place more than 45 years from now.
The RS-25 rocket engine is a part of NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS) that is being designed to allow humans to reach nearby asteroids and, eventually, the final destination: the Red Planet.
"What a great moment for NASA and Stennis," said Rick Gilbrech, director of the space center in Bay St. Louis, Miss. "We have exciting days ahead with a return to deep space and a journey to Mars, and this test is a very big step in that direction."
NASA's contractor, AeroJet Rocketdyne, ran several tests with NASA on the same rocket engine last year, focusing on the controller and testing the various operating conditions present on the SLS. With the success of Thursday's firing, the organizations are now working together to create new flight engine controllers, as well as continue testing of the engines.
Amazingly, the engines were first designed in the 1970s and are actually flight engines that originate from the Space Shuttle program, which came to an end in 2011. The engines have powered 135 shuttle missions between the years of 1981 and 2011.
"Not only does this test mark an important step towards proving our existing design for SLS's first flight," said Steve Wofford, engines manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "But it's also a great feeling that this engine that has carried so many astronauts into space before is being prepared to take astronauts to space once again on SLS's first crewed flight."
The RS-25 is one of four that is powering the SLS. Together, they will provide the system with two million pounds of thrust for NASA's planned long-haul missions.
After future engine tests are carried out at Stennis, the first Space Launch System flight is expected to take place no later than November 2018.
