NASA’s new booster rocket completes successful test

TORONTO – The largest and most powerful rocket underwent a successful ground test on Wednesday.

The booster — part of the system that will propel NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and take humans to an asteroid or the moon aboard the Orion spacecraft— was fired for two minutes, the same amount of time it will take to lift the mighty SLS off the ground. It produced an amazing 3.6 million pounds of thrust.

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READ MORE: Orion completes first test flight in ‘flawless’ fashion

“The work being done around the country today to build SLS is laying a solid foundation for future exploration missions, and these missions will enable us to pioneer far into the solar system,” said William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations. “The teams are doing tremendous work to develop what will be a national asset for human exploration and potential science missions.”

The first crewed launch of the SLS and Orion is scheduled for 2021.

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