Im sure the fuel alone is over my lifetime carbon footprint. A booster for the most powerful rocket in the world, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), was fired up Tuesday, June 28 at 11:05 a.m. EDT for a 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 is ready in 2018 for the first uncrewed test flight with NASA’s Orion spacecraft, marking a key milestone on the agency’s Journey to Mars. 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 test data captured by more than 530 instrumentation channels on the booster. Sloth
Amazing, truly amazing. Jump ahead to 9:05 in the video to see how far away the general public needs to be. Can you imagine the heat that must be put out by that thing?
Interesting enough on vid. Not so sure I understand why so many people gathered to watch a beeeeeg blowtorch sterilize some sand. But WOW, that's a flame and a half.