NASA is testing its giant SLS rocket for the moon

NASA was to launch a test of its new giant SLS rocket on Thursday, which will one day take astronauts to the moon, after the previous test was reduced to January.

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During this “hot fire” test of the main stage of the rocket, four RS-25 engines will be ignited in eight minutes, and the tanks will fill up with 2.6 million liters of fuel to simulate a launch phase. The test takes place at the Stennis Test Center in Mississippi (southern). From 19:00 GMT, it is possible to reach it in two hours. In a similar test at the end of January, after a minute of ignition, the engines shut down more than expected. Following the incident, the US space agency said no “Major Repair” Don ‘t want.

The SLS (Space Launch System) heavy rocket is already several years behind schedule. The US program Artemis is a powerful missile intended to bring the Orion spacecraft back to the moon. If the test is successful, the rocket will be flown to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Artemis 1, 2 and 3

Artemis 1, the first aircraft scheduled for later this year, will be at its peak with the Orion capsule, without an astronaut. Artemis 2 will send astronauts around the moon in 2023, but they will not land. Finally Artemis 3 will send two astronauts to lunar soil in 2024, including the first woman in theory. In its structure for Artemis 1, the American astronauts to the moon in the last century are larger than the SLS rocket Liberty statue and more powerful than the famous Saturn V.

Space company SpaceX is developing a heavy missile called the Starship to reach the moon and even Mars. The last tests of this rocket ended in interesting explosions. A new test of the starship prototype may take place in the coming days.