NASA Test-Fires Massive Solid Fuel Booster

NASA has successfully completed the first of two tests designed to certify the massive solid fuel boosters which will form a part of NASA's next generation Space Launch System (SLS). Once completed, SLS will represent the most powerful launch vehicle ever constructed and will be responsible for, among other tasks, launching NASA's Orion spacecraft on humanity's first manned mission to Mars.

The booster measures an impressive 177 ft (54 m) in length and carries 25 percent more fuel than those used to service the now defunct US Space Shuttle program.A temperature of 90 ºF was selected for the test based on the temperatures endured by the similar but smaller boosters used to launch space shuttles, which were found to endure between 40 ºF (4 ºC) to 90 ºF of heat over the course of their service.
The rocket successfully ignited and burned for a full two minutes, during which time it produced around 3.6 million pounds of thrust.  Upon completion, SLS will be power two monster as well as four R-25 engines, with the maiden flight scheduled to take place sometime in 2018

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