WASHINGTON: NASA yesterday completed an eight-minute test of engines on a Boeing-built rocket for Artemis missions that aim to return US astronauts to the moon by 2024, more than half a century since the last lunar walk.
NASA conducted yesterday’s hot fire test of the core stage of the Space Launch System rocket to simulate a launch by firing the engines while anchored to a tower at its Stennis Space Centre in Mississippi.
The four RS-25 engines roared to life for the full duration of the test and filled the surrounding area and sky with clouds of white smoke.
NASA aims to return US astronauts to the moon by 2024 but the SLS programme is three years behind schedule and nearly $3 billion over budget. The last astronaut to walk on the moon was Eugene Cernan in December 1972.
