Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Space Launch System Booster Passes Major Milestone on Journey to Mars

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 29, 2016 at 9:25:11 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Space Launch System Booster Passes Major Milestone on Journey to Mars

June 28, 2016
RELEASE 16-069

NASA's Space Launch System Booster Passes Major Milestone on Journey to Mars
The second and final qualification motor (QM-2) test for the Space Launch System's booster is seen, Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at Orbital ATK Propulsion System's (SLS) test facilities in Promontory, Utah. During the SLS flight the boosters will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth, the first step on NASA's Journey to Mars.
Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls
A booster for the most powerful rocket in the world, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), successfully fired up Tuesday for its second qualification ground test at Orbital ATK's test facilities in Promontory, Utah. This was the last full-scale test for the booster before SLS's first uncrewed test flight with NASA's Orion spacecraft in late 2018, a key milestone on the agency's Journey to Mars.
"This final qualification test of the booster system shows real progress in the development of the Space Launch System," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Seeing this test today, and experiencing the sound and feel of approximately 3.6 million pounds of thrust, helps us appreciate the progress we're making to advance human exploration and open new frontiers for science and technology missions in deep space."
The booster was tested at a cold motor conditioning target of 40 degrees Fahrenheit –the colder end of its accepted propellant temperature range. When ignited, temperatures inside the booster reached nearly 6,000 degrees. The two-minute, full-duration ground qualification test provided NASA with critical data on 82 qualification objectives that will support certification of the booster for flight. Engineers now will evaluate these data, captured by more than 530 instrumentation channels on the booster.
When completed, two five-segment boosters and four RS-25 main engines will power SLS on deep space missions. The solid rocket boosters, built by NASA contractor Orbital ATK, operate in parallel with SLS's main engines for the first two minutes of flight. They will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed for the rocket and Orion spacecraft to escape Earth's gravitational pull.
"Today's test is the pinnacle of years of hard work by the NASA team, Orbital ATK and commercial partners across the country," said John Honeycutt, SLS Program manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "SLS hardware is currently in production for every part of the rocket. NASA also is making progress every day on Orion and the ground systems to support a launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. We're on track to launch SLS on its first flight test with Orion and pave the way for a human presence in deep space."
The first full-scale booster qualification ground test was successfully completed in March 2015 and demonstrated acceptable performance of the booster design at 90 degrees Fahrenheit – the highest end of the booster's accepted propellant temperature range. Testing at the thermal extremes experienced by the booster on the launch pad is important to understand the effect of temperature on how the propellant burns.
The initial SLS configuration will have a minimum 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capability. The next planned upgrade of SLS will use a powerful exploration upper stage for more ambitious missions, with a 105-metric-ton (115-ton) lift capacity. In each configuration, SLS will continue to use the same core stage and four RS-25 engines.
For more information about NASA's Journey to Mars, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/journeytomars
For more information on SLS, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/sls
-end-
Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov
Kim Henry
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
kimberly.h.henry@nasa.gov
Kay Anderson
Orbital ATK
435-230-2787
kay.anderson@orbitalatk.com
Last Updated: June 28, 2016
Editor: Karen Northon

Space Launch System booster fired in final preflight qualification test
June 28, 2016 Stephen Clark
The 154-foot-long solid rocket motor ignited at 11:05 a.m. EDT (1505 GMT) in Promontory, Utah. Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News
A solid-fueled rocket motor mounted horizontally on a Utah hillside ignited and powered up to more than 3 million pounds of thrust Tuesday in a final full-up test-firing before a similar booster helps propel NASA's huge Space Launch System away from Earth on a demonstration flight in 2018.
The 154-foot-long (47-meter) rocket lit at 11:05 a.m. EDT (1505 GMT) Tuesday, an hour later than planned after test technicians ran into trouble with a ground computer controlling the booster's countdown sequence.
Engineers resolved the problem after a short delay, and the rocket motor fired with a spectacular golden plume of nearly 6,000-degree Fahrenheit (3,300-degree Celsius) exhaust, launching a vast plume of smoke thousands of feet over the hillside at the booster's test site in Promontory, Utah.
Manufactured by Orbital ATK, the rocket consumed 5.5 tons of its pre-packed propellant per second, burning through 1.4 million pounds of powdered aluminum fuel, oxidizer and binding agent in a two-minute, six-second firing. Pressures inside the steel propellant casings reached 900 psi, or 62 times Earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level.
Engineers expected the booster — the most powerful solid rocket motor in existence — to generate approximately 3.3 million pounds of thrust, equivalent to more than 10 four-engine jumbo jets, said Kent Rominger, Orbital ATK's vice president of propulsion systems strategy and business development, before Tuesday's test.
Technicians chilled the solid propellant inside the 12-foot-diameter (3.6-meter) to about 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) to test the booster's performance at cold temperatures, according to Alex Priskos, manager of the SLS boosters office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Orbital ATK conducted a similar test-firing last year with the fuel heated to 93 degrees (34 degrees Celsius).
The cooler temperatures were predicted to diminish the booster's thrust from the 3.6 million force-pounds produced in warmer conditions. Such a change is within the booster's operating specifications, but engineers needed to quantify the difference to adjust the rocket's trajectory on a real flight.
The boosters are a critical part of the Space Launch System, a rocket under development by NASA since 2011 to dispatch astronauts on missions beyond low Earth orbit for the first time since 1972.
A first glance at data collected on Tuesday's test showed the firing met all objectives, officials said.
"We've had a chance to look at just some very, very preliminary data … and everything looks great so far," Priskos told reporters after Tuesday's test firing. "We're going to be digging into the data a lot more as we go forward."
Tuesday's test was the fifth and final ground firing planned on the SLS booster before the heavy-lifter's first launch in 2018.
"What an absolutely amazing day today," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator of human exploration and operations. "Just a great chance to be here and actually witness this test-firing.
"It's not just a test-firing," Gerstenmaier said. "It's really a qualification motor test-firing, which fits in a sequence. That essentially says this design is ready to go fly, and ready to go do the mission which it's designed to go do."
Two SLS boosters will fly on each SLS launch, delivering more than 75 percent of the rocket's total thrust in the first two minutes of flight. Counting the power produced by four RS-25 liquid-fueled main engines on the SLS core stage, the huge rocket will climb away from Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B on 8.4 million pounds of thrust, more than any U.S. launch vehicle in history.
When fully assembled with an aft skirt and nose cone, the strap-on boosters will stand 177 feet (54 meters) tall. For SLS missions, engineers added a fifth segment to the space shuttle's existing four-section boosters, raising the rocket motor's total impulse by 25 percent and thrust output by 20 percent, Priskos said.
"The outside of the car looks the same," Priskos said of the modifications. "When you look under the hood of the vehicle, almost everything else has changed."
VIPs and news media representatives observe Tuesday's firing from a nearby viewing site. Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News
The boosters burn the same solid fuel as the shuttle motors, but engineers changed the shape of the propellant grains to meet SLS requirements. Orbital ATK also removed the parachute recovery system flown on the reusable shuttle boosters because the motors will be discarded after SLS launches, saving about 10,000 pounds (nearly 5 metric tons) in weight, Kriskos said.
The attach points between the boosters and the core stage were also moved from their locations on the space shuttle, and engineers strengthened the booster's forward skirt with stiffeners to take the extra load from the motor's higher thrust.
Other changes included modifications to the nozzle's heat shield and throat, along with upgrades to computer controllers on the rocket motor.
"The avionics system that flew on shuttle was all analog," Kriskos said. "This is a state-of-the-art digital avionics (system) in separate boxes. The other one was all consolidated in one package."
With ground testing complete, NASA and Orbital ATK managers now turn their attention to data analysis and preparation of the solid rocket boosters destined to fly on the first SLS launch, called Exploration Mission-1, in late 2018.
Three of the 10 booster segments for the EM-1 launch have been filled with propellant at Orbital ATK's solid rocket propulsion plant in northern Utah. Technicians will cast the remaining seven sections with propellant over the coming months.
The booster parts will be transported from Utah to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida via train in the fall of 2017, according to Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager of Orbital ATK's propulsion systems division.
The boosters will be stacked vertically on a mobile launch platform inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC, then joined with the SLS core stage currently under manufacture by Boeing at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
NASA's Orion spacecraft, with crew and service modules made by Lockheed Martin and Airbus Defense and Space, will be hoisted atop the SLS upper stage provided by United Launch Alliance before rollout to launch pad 39B.
Gerstenmaier said Tuesday that EM-1, a test flight without astronauts, is on track to launch in late 2018.
"We're still kind of targeting for September (2018), but we're trending more towards maybe October or November timeframe," Gerstenmaier said. "This is a continual process. We go look and see what hardware is available — what systems are available when — and we go look at the schedule, and we optimize the schedule based on what we get."
The EM-1 mission will last about three weeks, with the Orion spacecraft traveling beyond the moon on a shakedown cruise before NASA proceeds with a crewed flight some time between 2021 and 2023.
Gerstenmaier touted NASA's plan for renewed human expeditions into deep space with the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft. With a presidential election looming, he said he is hopeful the program retains the largely-bipartisan political backing it has received from Congress and the Obama administration since they agreed on a space exploration vision in 2011.
"If we can keep our focus and keep delivering, and deliver to the schedules, the budgets and the promise of what we've got, I think we've got a very capable vision that actually moves the nation very far forward in moving human presence into space," Gerstenmaier said. "This is a very capable system. It's not built for just one or two flights. It is actually built for multiple decades of use that will enable us to eventually allow humans to go to Mars.
"If you look at the continuum of this program, it may not be optimum from anyone's particular standpoint if you want it optimized for a particular aspect," Gerstenmaier said. "But if you want a robust program that can keep this nation as a leader in spaceflight, this is a human spaceflight program that I think any country would be lucky to have, and we're really blessed that we have this program in his country."

© 2016 Spaceflight Now Inc.

By William Harwood CBS News June 28, 2016, 2:27 PM
"Amazing" test of booster to power NASA super rocket

A five-segment solid-fuel booster needed by NASA's new Space Launch System rocket was successfully test fired Tuesday in Utah, generating 3.6 million pounds of thrust during a two-minute six-second firing.NASA

A massive solid-fuel booster designed to help lift NASA's Space Launch System super rocket out of the lower atmosphere was test fired Tuesday in Utah, generating a spectacular torrent of fiery exhaust and nearly 3.6 million pounds of thrust, enough energy to power more than 46,000 homes during the two-minute six-second burn.
Mounted horizontally on a massive concrete test stand at Orbital ATK's Promontory, Utah, test facility, the 154-foot-long motor ignited with a torrent of fire 11:05 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), one hour late because of problems with a ground systems computer.
Made up of five fuel segments bolted together -- one more than the boosters used by NASA's space shuttles -- the giant rocket consumed 5.5 tons of propellant per second at some 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit before burning out, generating the equivalent of 1.15 million kilowatts of power.
Hundreds of spectators watched the firing from a viewing site more than a mile away, cheering and applauding as the rocket ignited with a ground-shaking roar, sending a towering plume of churning exhaust high into the sky.
As the propellant burned out, the horizontal jet of exhaust turned into a billowing cloud of orange flame before a swing arm rotated into the nozzle, flushing the interior of the booster with carbon dioxide to quickly quench any residual flame.
"We've had a chance to look at just some very, very preliminary data (and) everything looks great so far," said Alex Priskos, manager SLS booster office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Spectators a bit more than a mile away look on as qualification motor No. 2, or QM-2, was fired at Orbital ATK's Promontory, Utah, test site. NASA
During a test firing in March 2015, the 1.5 million pounds of propellant packed into qualification motor No. 1, or QM-1, was heated up to around 90 degrees Fahrenheit to test the booster's performance at the upper end of its operating range.
For Tuesday test, the booster's propellant was cooled to 41 degrees, a process that took more than a month using 25-degree air pumped into a roll-off hangar from multiple refrigeration units. The goal was to collect performance data at the lower end of the allowable temperature range.
Other major objectives included tests of a new insulation and a redesigned nozzle, along with SLS computer commanding for motor ignition and steering. Some 530 channels of telemetry were recorded.
"What an absolutely amazing day today!" said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's director of space operations. "It's not just a test firing, it's a qualification motor test firing, which fits in a sequence that essentially says this design is ready to go fly."
Engineers will "get a lot of data, there are over 500 channels of data on this rocket," he said. "They'll be poring over that data to make sure it performed exactly the way we intended it to perform at these cold conditions. And that data will be really important to go ahead and say things are certified."
Assuming no major problems surface during data analysis, the next time an SLS solid-fuel booster fires will be during launch of Exploration Mission 1 in the Fall of 2018, the first full-up flight test of the gargantuan 322-foot-tall SLS booster.
Using two five-segment SRB's and four upgraded shuttle-vintage main engines at the base of the rocket's first stage, the initial version of the SLS will generate a combined 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, 15 percent more than NASA's fabled Saturn 5 moon rocket.
For the EM-1 fight, an interim second stage engine and uncrewed Orion capsule also will be put through their paces. All told, the Block 1 version of the SLS will tip the scales at 5.75 million pounds at launch and be capable of putting 77 tons of payload into space.
The Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket will use two five-segment shuttle-heritage solid-fuel boosters to power the huge rocket out of the lower atmosphere. NASA
Three of the 10 segments needed to make up the two EM-1 solid-fuel boosters are already loaded with propellant and all 10 are expected to be shipped by rail from Utah to the Kennedy Space Center by the Fall of next year. NASA has enough shuttle-vintage booster segments to support eight SLS launches.
The first crewed flight of an Orion capsule atop an SLS rocket -- EM-2 -- is tentatively planned for 2023. During that flight, four astronauts will venture beyond the orbit of the moon for a critical shakedown mission.
NASA plans to develop an upgraded version of the SLS rocket in the 2020s that could generate 9.2 million pounds of thrust to launch large spacecraft into deep space and, eventually, Mars.
"If you look at the continuum of this program, it may not be optimum from anyone's particular standpoint ... but if you want a robust program that camn keep this nation as a leader in spaceflight, this is a human spaceflight program that I think any country would be lucky to have," Gerstenmaier said. "Hopefully, the political (establishment) will see that and recognize what we have."

© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Sick Burn! NASA Fires Off Test of Next-Generation Rocket Engine
By Calla Cofield, Space.com Staff Writer | June 28, 2016 12:47pm ET

Thousands of onlookers gawked as a column of flame exploded across the desert floor outside Promontory, Utah, today (June 28) during a test of the engine that will help power NASA's next-generation rocket.
Lying horizontally, the engine for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket booster released a massive blast of flame and a wall of black smoke for two solid minutes during today's Qualification Motor-2 (QM-2) test (see photos of the test here). This is the last engine test before NASA's Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) in 2018, in which SLS will send an uncrewed Orion capsule on a flight beyond the orbit of the moon and back to Earth. Eventually, NASA aims to use Orion and SLS to send humans to Mars.
Today's test was delayed by about an hour due to a problem with the computer that controls the sequence of events during the test, NASA representatives said during the pretest broadcast on NASA TV. [Watch the Space Launch System Booster Test]
Fire sprays out the end of NASA's SLS rocket booster engine during a qualifying test on June 28, 2016.
Credit: NASA TV

A massive crowd of spectators gathered in a viewing area, located about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) away from the engine, to watch the 2-minute burn. Former NASA astronaut Don Thomas, who spoke with NASA TV during a live, prelaunch webcast, estimated that 5,000 to 10,000 people were present in the viewing area. Once the engine fired up, spectators saw the resulting bright light, but the explosive sound from the engine didn't reach the crowd until about 6 seconds later.
Today's QM-2 test of the SLS booster engine took place at facilities owned and operated by the private spaceflight company Orbital ATK. The company has been contracted by NASA to build the solid rocket booster that will "operate in parallel with SLS's main engines for the first two minutes of flight," according to the same NASA statement. (When it's complete, SLS will consist of a core stage with four main engines, along with two solid rocket boosters like the one that was tested today.)
The QM-2 test was preceded by a similar engine test in March 2015. The test today was a "cool" test, meaning the engine propellant was chilled to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius), which helps scientists "understand the effects of temperature on how the propellant burns," according to NASA's website.
SLS engineers also tested the engine's thrust vector control system, according to Bruce Tiller, the SLS booster manager at NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. That means that viewers who watched today's event on NASA TV may have seen the engine nozzle moving slightly during the test.
"But the big thing is what you don't see," Tiller said. "And that's all the data we're going to gather and [the data] that the engineers are going to review carefully to confirm and prove that our motor is ready for flight."
A view from the spectator viewing area of the second engine test of the SLS rocket booster, on June 28, 2016.
Credit: NASA TV

"This final qualification test of the booster system shows real progress in the development of the Space Launch System," William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA, said in a statement. "Seeing this test today, and experiencing the sound and feel of approximately 3.6 million pounds of thrust, helps us appreciate the progress we're making to advance human exploration and open new frontiers for science and technology missions in deep space."
NASA's SLS rocket is designed to send spacecraft to deep-space destinations such as Mars. NASA has scheduled EM-1 for 2018; the mission will send the Orion capsule on a journey past the moon, more than a quarter million miles (400,000 km) from the Earth, according to Mike Sarafin, the mission manager for EM-1 at NASA. The Orion capsule underwent a low-orbit test flight in December 2014, but EM-1 will be the SLS' maiden voyage, Sarafin said.
"We're going to fly it and test it out in that new environment, where we're outside Earth's magnetic field and we see the environment of deep-space radiation," Sarafin said during the NASA TV pretest broadcast today. "We're trying to understand how the system performs in that environment, and we'll get all that valuable data back before we put our astronauts on the very next mission, Exploration Mission 2."
That second test of the SLS and Orion system is officially targeted for August 2021, but recently, NASA said that date may slip to 2023.

http://www.space.com/33291-test-firing-nasa-rocket-engine-photos.html

2nd Firing Test of NASA's Next-Generation Rocket Engine (Photos)
Tuesday, June 28, 2016 09:27
Check out these photos from the second test firing of the engine for NASA's next-generation rocket booster, the Space Launch System (SLS). NASA plans to use SLS to send astronauts to mars and other deep-space locations.

http://www.space.com/33289-huge-space-launch-system-booster-test-fired-in-utah-video.html

Huge Space Launch System Booster Test Fired In Utah | Video
Tuesday, June 28, 2016 08:13
The congressionally-mandated NASA Space Launch System rocket continues it testing with a firing of its Orbital ATK-built booster in Promontory, Utah on June 28, 2016.

Copyright © 2016 TechMediaNetwork.com All rights reserved.

NASA completes final test of SLS boosters before first launch
by Jeff Foust — June 28, 2016
A five-segment solid rocket booster fires during the Qualification Motor 2 test in Utah June 28. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
WASHINGTON — A successful two-minute test of a five-segment solid rocket booster June 28 is the final development milestone for the shuttle-derived boosters before their use on the first flight of the Space Launch System.
The test, known as Qualification Motor 2 (QM-2), demonstrated the booster's performance when cooled to approximately 5 degrees Celsius, the lower end of its range of operating temperatures. NASA swiftly declared that the booster firing, conducted at an Orbital ATK test site near Promontory, Utah, was a success.
"It's not just a test firing, it's really a qualification motor test firing, which fits into a sequence that essentially says this design is ready to go fly," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, in a media teleconference an hour after the test.
Analysis of data collected during the test, which was delayed by an hour to replace a failed hard drive in ground support equipment, is still in its initial phases. Agency officials, though, appeared pleased. "We've had a chance to look at just some very, very preliminary data," said Alex Priskos, manager of the SLS Boosters Office at the Marshall Space Flight center, "and everything looks great so far."
The QM-2 test, and the QM-1 test in 2015 that verified the booster's performance at the upper end of its temperature range, are the final tests of the solid rocket booster. Two of the five-segment boosters will be used on the SLS, along with four RS-25 engines previously used on the space shuttle.
The data collected from QM-2 and other tests will feed into a design certification review for the booster in the summer of 2017. "For those of us worried about delivery schedules and that, it's just around the corner," Priskos said.
The first launch of the SLS, on a flight known as Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), is currently scheduled for late 2018. Three of the ten solid motor segments needed for that launch have already been produced at the Orbital ATK facility near the test site. All ten of the motors should be completed by next fall, said Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager of Orbital ATK's Propulsion Systems Division.
Gerstenmaier said that the official target date for EM-1 is September 2018, but that date is likely to slip slightly. "We're trending more towards maybe the October-November timeframe," he said, not singling out any particular component of that mission as the cause of that slip. "Really almost all of our components are on the critical path to some extent."
He said that work should not be affected by the uncertainty NASA's overall exploration program faces by the upcoming presidential election, which brings with it the potential for significant changes by the next administration.
"I think if we can show with our evidence, by just direct work of our folks of steady progress moving forward, I think that helps build support for our program," he said. "I think the best thing we can do is just kind of stay focused on what we're doing" and not overreact to outside developments.
Orbital ATK, in addition to its work developing and testing the solid rocket boosters, is also in the initial phases of a U.S. Air Force-funded study of a large launch vehicle that would use similar booster motors in its lower stages.
"All of these developments feed upon each other," Precourt said when asked how the SLS works aids that vehicle design study. That includes improvements in manufacturing capabilities and the speed at which the company can assemble booster components. "Whatever we do with a given concept or a given motor system, we will use the best of that on the next design."

© 2016 SpaceNews, Inc. All rights reserved.

NASA Completes Awesome Test Firing of World's Most Powerful Booster for Human Mission to Mars - Gallery - Universe Today
Ken Kremer

Ignition of the qualification motor (QM-2) booster during test firing for NASA's Space Launch System as seen on Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at Orbital ATK Propulsion System's (SLS) test facilities in Promontory, Utah. Credit: Julian Leek
The world's most powerful booster that will one day propel NASA astronauts on exciting missions of exploration to deep space destinations including the Moon and Mars was successfully ignited this morning, June 28, during an awesome ground test firing on a remote mountainside in Utah, that qualifies it for an inaugural blastoff in late 2018.
The two-minute-long, full-duration static test for NASA's mammoth Space Launch System (SLS) rocket involved firing the new five-segment solid rocket booster for its second and final qualification ground test as it sat restrained in a horizontal configuration at Orbital ATK's test facilities at a desert site in Promontory, Utah.
The purpose was to provide NASA and prime contractor Orbital ATK with critical data on 82 qualification objectives. Engineers will use the data gathered by more than 530 instrumentation channels on the booster to certify the booster for flight.
The 154-foot-long (47-meter) booster was fired up on the test stand by the Orbital ATK operations team at 11:05 a.m. EDT (9:05 a.m. MT) for what is called the Qualification Motor-2 (QM-2) test.
"We have ignition of NASA's Space Launch System motor powering us on our Journey to Mars," said NASA commentator Kim Henry at ignition!
A gigantic plume of black smoke and intense yellow fire erupted at ignition spewing a withering cloud of ash into the Utah air and barren mountainside while consuming propellant at a rate of 5.5 tons per second.
It also sent out a shock wave reverberating back to excited company, NASA and media spectators witnessing the event from about a mile away as well as to another 10,000 or so space enthusiasts and members of the general public gathered to watch from about 2 miles away.
Ignition of the qualification motor (QM-2) booster during test firing for NASA's Space Launch System as seen on Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at Orbital ATK Propulsion System's (SLS) test facilities in Promontory, Utah. Credit: Julian Leek
"What an absolutely amazing day today for all of us here to witness this test firing. And it's not just a test firing. It's really a qualification motor test firing that says this design is ready to go fly and ready to go do the mission which it's designed to go do," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, during the post QM-2 test media briefing today.
Thrilled spectators witness the Qualification Motor-2 (QM-2) test firing on June 28, 2016 at Orbital ATK test facilities in Promontory, Utah. Credit: Jean Leek
The critically important test marks a major milestone clearing the path to the first SLS launch that could happen as soon as September 2018, noted Gerstenmaier
"The team did a tremendous professional job to get all this ready for the firing. We will get over 500 channels of data on this rocket. They will pour over the data to ensure it will perform exactly the way we intended it to at these cold conditions."
Qualification motor (QM-2) booster fires up erupting massive smoke cloud during test of NASA's Space Launch System on Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at Orbital ATK test facilities in Promontory, Utah. Credit: Dawn Taylor
The QM-2 booster had been pre-chilled for several weeks inside a huge test storage shed to conduct this so called 'cold motor test' at approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit (5 C) – corresponding to the colder end of its accepted propellant temperature range.
NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with lift off using two of the five segment solid rocket motors and four RS-25 engines to power the maiden launch of SLS and NASA's Orion deep space manned spacecraft in late 2018.
The SLS boosters are derived from the four segment solid rocket boosters (SRBs) originally delevoped for NASA's space shuttle program and used for 3 decades.
"This final qualification test of the booster system shows real progress in the development of the Space Launch System," said NASA associate administrator Gerstenmaier.
"Seeing this test today, and experiencing the sound and feel of approximately 3.6 million pounds of thrust, helps us appreciate the progress we're making to advance human exploration and open new frontiers for science and technology missions in deep space."
Despite being cooled to 41 F (5 C) for the cold motor test the flames emitted by the 12-foot-diameter (3.6-meter) booster are actually hot enough at some 6000 degrees Fahrenheit to boil steel.
The internal pressure reaches about 900 psi.
NASA's Space Launch System Solid Rocket Booster infographic
The first ground test called QM-1 was conducted at 90 degrees Fahrenheit, at the upper end of the operating range, in March 2015 as I reported earlier here.
This second ground test firing took place about 1 hour later than originally planned due to a technical issue with the ground sequencing computer control system.
The next time one of these solid rocket boosters fire will be for the combined SLS-1/Orion EM-1 test flight in late 2018.
Each booster generates approximately 3.6 million pounds of thrust. Overall they will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed for the rocket and Orion spacecraft to escape Earth's gravitational pull, says NASA.
"It was awesome to say the least," space photographer and friend Julian Leek who witnessed the test first hand told Universe Today.
"Massive fire power released over the Utah mountains. There was about a five second delay before you could hear the sound – that really got everyone's attention!"
"It was absolutely magnificent," space photographer friend Dawn Taylor told me. "Can't wait to see it at the Cape when it goes vertical."
To date Orbital ATK has cast 3 of the 10 booster segments required for the 2018 launch, said Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager of Orbital ATK's Propulsion Systems Division in Promontory, Utah.
I asked Precourt about the production timing for the remaining segments.
"All of the segments will be delivered to NASA at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida by next fall," Precourt replied during the media briefing.
"They will be produced at a rate of roughly one a month. We also have to build the nozzles up and so forth."
When will booster stacking begin inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at KSC?
Booster shipments start shipping from Utah this fall. Booster stacking in the VAB starts in the spring of 2018," Alex Priskos, manager of the NASA SLS Boosters Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, told me.
Furthermore a preliminary look at the data indicates that all went well.
"What an outstanding test. After a look at some very preliminary data everything looks great so far," Priskos said at the briefing. "We're going to be digging into the data a lot more as we go forward."
The spent five-segment Qualification Motor-2 (QM-2) test booster for NASA's SLS soon after the full duration firing at Orbital ATK test facility in Promontory, Utah, on June 28, 2016. Credit: Julian Leek
Meanwhile the buildup of US flight hardware continues at NASA and contractor centers around the US, as well as the Orion service module from ESA.
The maiden test flight of the SLS/Orion is targeted for no later than November 2018 and will be configured in its initial 70-metric-ton (77-ton) version with a liftoff thrust of 8.4 million pounds.
In February 2016 the welded skeletal backbone for the Orion EM-1 mission arrived at the Kennedy Space Center for outfitting with all the systems and subsystems necessary for flight.
The core stage fuel tank holding the cryogenic liquid oxygen and hydrogen propellants is being welded together at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, LA.
Orion crew module pressure vessel for NASA's Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) is unveiled for the first time on Feb. 3, 2016 after arrival at the agency's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. It is secured for processing in a test stand called the birdcage in the high bay inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building at KSC. Launch to the Moon is slated in 2018 atop the SLS rocket. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
Although the SLS-1 flight in 2018 will be uncrewed, NASA plans to launch astronauts on the SLS-2/EM-2 mission slated for the 2021 to 2023 timeframe.
It all depends on the budget NASA receives from Congress and who is elected President in the election in November 2016.
"If we can keep our focus and keep delivering, and deliver to the schedules, the budgets and the promise of what we've got, I think we've got a very capable vision that actually moves the nation very far forward in moving human presence into space," Gerstenmaier explained at the briefing.
"This is a very capable system. It's not built for just one or two flights. It is actually built for multiple decades of use that will enable us to eventually allow humans to go to Mars in the 2030s.
One forerunner to the Mars mission could be a habitation module around the Moon perhaps five years from now.
Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news.
Ken Kremer
An Orbital ATK technician inspects hardware and instrumentation on a full-scale, test version booster for NASA's new rocket, the Space Launch System. The booster is being cooled to approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit ahead of its second qualification ground test June 28 at Orbital ATK's test facilities in Promontory, Utah. Testing at the thermal extremes experienced by the booster on the launch pad is important to understanding the effects of temperature on the performance of how the propellant burns. Credits: Orbital ATK
The second and final qualification motor (QM-2) test for the Space Launch System's booster is seen, Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at Orbital ATK Propulsion Systems test facilities in Promontory, Utah. During the Space Launch System flight the boosters will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth, the first step on NASA's Journey to Mars. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Mountainside test location for the Qualification motor-2 (QM-2) test of the 5-segment solid rocket motor designed for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) at Orbital ATK test facility in Promontory, Utah, on June 28, 2016. Credit: Julian Leek
The five-segment Qualification motor-2 (QM-2) test booster for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) being readied for full duration firing at Orbital ATK test facility in Promontory, Utah, on June 28, 2016. Credit: NASA

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