NASA's Boeing-built deep space exploration rocket, Space Launch System , is set to fire its behemoth core stage for the first time on Saturday, a crucial test for a years-delayed U.S. government project facing mounting pressure from emerging private sector technology.
Space Launch System's hot fire test, expected to begin at 5 p.m. EST Saturday at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, caps a nearly year-long 'Green Run' test campaign to validate the rocket's design.It is seen as a vital step before a debut unmanned launch later this year under NASA's Artemis program, the Trump administration's push to land humans on the moon again by 2024.
"This is a once-in-a-generation kind of test," Jim Maser, Aerojet Rocketdyne's Senior Vice President of Space, told Reuters."This will be the first time four RS-25s fire together at the same time." While newer, more reusable rockets from both companies - SpaceX's Starship and United Launch Alliance's Vulcan - promise heavier lift than Falcon Heavy or Delta IV Heavy potentially at lower cost, SLS backers argue it would take two or more launches on those rockets to launch what SLS could carry in a single mission.
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