2015 is off to a hot start for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). The engine that will drive NASA’s next rocket to deep space blazed through its first successful test on January 9, 2015 at the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St Louis, Mississippi.
The RS-25, formerly the space shuttle main engine, fired up for 500 seconds on the A-1 test stand at Stennis, providing NASA engineers critical data on the engine controller unit and inlet pressure conditions. This is the first hot fire of an RS-25 engine since the end of space shuttle main engine testing in 2009. Four RS-25 engines will power SLS on future missions, including asteroid and Mars voyages.
