NASA has carried out a hot fire test of an RS-25 certification engine on the Fred Haise Test Stand at Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, to validate its performance capabilities in supporting future deep space missions.
The Aerojet Rocketdyne-manufactured engine was powered for about eight and a half minutes and fired up to 113 percent power, surpassing the required 111 percent power level to help launch NASA’s Space Launch System for future Artemis missions, the agency said Friday.
The hot fire is part of a test series to certify production of the redesigned RS-25 engine for future deep space exploration missions, starting with Artemis V.
In April, NASA conducted a 12-minute hot fire test to study the pivoting capabilities of the engine.
SLS uses four RS-25 engines with a combined thrust of over 2 million pounds.
