Nasa to ignite engines of $18bn Space Launch System in effort to return to Moon

Gustaf Kilander

Thu, March 18, 2021, 9:06 AM

The core stage for the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket is tested on 16 January, 2021. (Getty Images)

NASA is closing in on the final test of its massive rocket that it is hoped will put the first woman and next man on the Moon.

The agency will ignite the engines of its $18.6bn Space Launch System later today for an eight-minute burn to see if it is ready for use this autumn. This will be the second test of the engines and the final run-through before NASA moves to the second stage on the launchpad.

The mission planned for November will be unmanned, but the hope is that this launch system will be used for a future manned mission to the Moon. However, budget constraints have blurred the timeline for such a trip.

According to NASA, the Space Launch System is a "super-heavy-lift launch vehicle" that it says "is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and cargo to the Moon on a single mission".

Orion is a kind of partially reusable space capsule that is intended to "take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before".

The burn of the rocket’s core stage using four RS-25 engines for eight minutes will generate 1.6 million lbs of thrust and take place at the Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi, close to the Gulf of Mexico.

Over 700,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen will fill up the tanks of the 212-foot core so that it can fire up its engines without actually shooting off into space.

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The goal is to test the procedure for its launch ahead of its mission to send a capsule without a crew around the Moon and back to planet earth.

NASA's acting administrator Steve Jurczyk said the Space Launch System "is going to be the most powerful rocket ever developed," NPR reported.

The test is to begin sometime after 3pm Eastern Time on Thursday. Earlier this year, a test had to be ended after 67 seconds because of an engine failure.