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NASA Tests 'Most Powerful Rocket Booster Ever' (Video)

By Edward Cardenas

SOUTHFIELD (CBS Detroit) - NASA successfully tested a rocket booster Wednesday that will one day propel missions beyond Earth's orbit and to deep space destinations including an asteroid and Mars.

The booster fired two minutes, which mimics the same amount of time it will fire when it lifts the NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket off the launch pad. The booster produced 3.6 million pounds of thrust and created temperatures inside the booster of more than 5,600 degrees.

"The work being done around the country today to build SLS is laying a solid foundation for future exploration missions, and these missions will enable us to pioneer far into the solar system," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, in a release. "The teams are doing tremendous work to develop what will be a national asset for human exploration and potential science missions."

The test was conducted in the Promontory, Utah, and is one of two tests planned to qualify the booster for flight. Once the booster is qualified, the flight booster hardware will be shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first SLS flight.

When completed and approved for flight, the 177-feet-long solid rocket boosters operate in parallel with the main engines for the first two minutes of flight and will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed for the rocket to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth.

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