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NASA's Mars rocket booster test a success

By Shawn Price
Guests watch the second and final qualification motor (QM-2) test for the Space Launch System's booster, Tuesday at Orbital ATK Propulsion Systems test facilities in Promontory, Utah. During the Space Launch System flight the boosters will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth, the first step on NASA's Journey to Mars. NASA Photo by Bill Ingalls/UPI
1 of 3 | Guests watch the second and final qualification motor (QM-2) test for the Space Launch System's booster, Tuesday at Orbital ATK Propulsion Systems test facilities in Promontory, Utah. During the Space Launch System flight the boosters will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth, the first step on NASA's Journey to Mars. NASA Photo by Bill Ingalls/UPI | License Photo

PROMONTORY, Utah, June 28 (UPI) -- A rocket booster for NASA's Space Launch System passed a key test on Tuesday, pushing the U.S. space agency a small step closer to Mars.

NASA intends to use the rocket as part of deep space missions, especially the first manned trip to Mars in the 2030s.

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The test, at Orbital ATK's facility in Promontory, Utah, was the last full-scale hurdle for the rocket booster before an un-manned test flight on NASA's Orion spacecraft in 2018.

"Seeing this test today, and experiencing the sound and feel of approximately 3.6 million pounds of thrust, helps us appreciate the progress we're making to advance human exploration and open new frontiers for science and technology missions in deep space," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA in a statement.

Engineers will pour through an extensive data stream to be certain that all equipment performed exactly right to ensure the success of the Space Launch System, a rocket more powerful than the Saturn V rockets that carried NASA astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s.

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