NASA simulated a launch by firing the engines of the core
stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket while it was anchored to a tower
at its Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
The four RS-25 engines roared to life for the full eight
minutes of the test and filled the surrounding area and sky with clouds of
white smoke. After the engines cut off, NASA employees could be heard
applauding on the space agency's live-streaming video, and many aerospace firms
publicly congratulated NASA on a successful test.
A previous test in January ended after about a minute - well
short of the roughly four minutes engineers needed to gather enough data.
The Space Launch System is now expected to go to the Kennedy
Space Center in Florida for integration with Lockheed Martin's Orion
spacecraft.
NASA aims to send an uncrewed spacecraft to orbit the moon
in November and return US astronauts to the moon by 2024, but the SLS program
is three years behind schedule and nearly $3 billion over budget.
President Joe Biden has tapped former Democratic senator and
astronaut Bill Nelson to run the US space agency, according to two people
familiar with the decision.
It was a much-sought-after victory for Boeing after multiple
setbacks.
Boeing lost a race for its Starliner crew capsule to be the
first to carry astronauts from US soil to the International Space Station in
nearly a decade to Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is also racing to send its own
crewed mission to space for the first time.
© Reuters
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