--- title: "NASA Tests Rocket So Huge It Lights Entire Hillside on Fire" description: "Northrop Grumman just ignited a booster for NASA's long-awaited Space Launch System (SLS). The ensuing fireball was so huge, it lit a nearby hill on fire." date: "2020-09-02" modified: "2020-09-02" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-test-sls-booster-hillside-fire" categories: - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "NASA" - "northrop grumman" - "sls" - "the digest" --- # NASA Tests Rocket So Huge It Lights Entire Hillside on Fire ![Northrop Grumman just ignited a booster for NASA's long-awaited Space Launch System (SLS). The ensuing fireball was so huge, it lit a nearby hill on fire.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Massive Fireball Northrop Grumman just ignited a booster for NASA's long-awaited [Space Launch System]() (SLS) — blasting so forcefully that it ignited brush on the surrounding hills at the company's test facility in Promontory, Utah. https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1301235290581934080 https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1301237413524787202 ## Space Launch System The Flight Support Booster, or [FSB-1](), is meant to lay the groundwork for improving future rocket boosters that are meant to power NASA's SLS, as [*Spaceflight Now* reports](). The SLS is a heavy-lift launch system meant to one day carry astronauts to the Moon as part of the agency's upcoming Artemis missions. A [July test]() of the core stage rocket built by Boeing was a success. [According to Northrop Grumman](), the 154-foot booster is the "largest solid rocket motor ever built for flight." The booster is made out of five segments and weighs a whopping 1.6 million pounds, producing a maximum of 3.6 million pounds of thrust, according to [official documentation](). The SLS core stage is even bigger, towering at 212 feet and designed to push out [two million pounds of thrust]() from four RS-25 engines. ## Big Rockets Are Hard "From our view, it looks like everything went great," NASA's TV commentator [said]() during the live stream of the event. "Rockets, especially big ones, are rather hard," *Ars Technica* senior space reporter Eric Berger [wrote in a tweet](), congratulating Northrop Grumman. "Good work by NASA and Northrop Grumman to pull off this test." **READ MORE:** [SLS booster test-fired in Utah]() \[*Spaceflight Now*\] **More on SLS:** [Boeing Just Powered Up NASA’s Most Powerful Rocket Ever]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()