Power and strength of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) cannot be defined in words. Termed as ‘World’s most powerful rocket’ that will one day carry humans to mars, recently tested one of its four engines and it was powerful like no other engine in the world.
Also Read: NASA to send robots to surface of sun in 2018
In a 360-degree video released by the space organization, one of the four engines RS-25 ran a hot fire test which produced 512,000 pounds of thrust. And this much of energy is released by one rocket; more than 2 million pounds of thrust will be produced when the actual rocket is lifted off.
The four RS-25 engines, together with the solid rocket boosters will give the SLS 8.8 million pounds of thrust. That’s 15% more power than the engines that powered Apollo program. If and when the rocket is launched, the motors will run for about 8.5 minutes, powering the capsule into orbit. The RS-25 engine pumps out hot gasses at the speed which is 13 times more than the speed of sound.
NOTE: 360-degree video doesn’t work on all devices.
Image Credit: NASA
