In mid-August, NASA successfully tested the engine that will power its new SLS (Space Launch System) launch project, without encountering any problems during 7.5 minutes of this test.
This is the third successful test of the RS-25 rocket engine, and there will be three more in the next few months, in order to be able to combine 4 of these engines during the launch of the next mission to Mars. “SLS is going to be the most powerful rocket ever built.“said astronaut Rick Mastracchio. » You have to be able to propel all this material into Earth orbit in order to then recover it and go to the Moon, and even further, to Mars. »
The RS-25 engine is very impressive andn terms of how much energy it can sustain, as we can see from the duration of the test, because NASA needs much higher performance to meet the needs of the SLS, being the most powerful future rocket ever built. Thus, uOnce completed, the SLS will be powered by two thrusters, one of which was tested in August and four engines RS-25.
As NASA explains, the thrusters are designed to work with the main engines during the first 2 minutes of flight, providing more than 75% of the thrust required by the SLS to free itself from Earth’s gravitational pull. . These two thrusters alone will burn 5 tons of propellant per second in order to create enough thrust and be able to launch the mission.
The SLS itself will be larger than the Statue of Liberty, and capable of carrying more than twice the weight of the payload hitherto carried by older NASA space shuttles. It is designed to carry four astronauts on the Orion spacecraft, which performed its first test flight in December 2014.
But before the SLS and Orion carry humans to deep space, they will still have to undergo their first unmanned test flight, scheduled for September 2018.
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