SoylentNews

ah.clem writes:

Media and social media followers are invited to watch as NASA tests the largest, most powerful booster ever built March 11 at ATK Aerospace System's test facility in Promontory, Utah. The booster will power NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), which will be used to help send humans to deep space destinations including an asteroid and Mars.

The two-minute, full-duration static test is a significant milestone in the development of the SLS and comes after years of development to qualify the booster design performance at the highest end of the booster’s accepted temperature range. Once this test and a second, low-temperature test planned for early 2016, are complete, the hardware will be ready to help send the rocket, with NASA’s Orion spacecraft atop it, on its first flight test.

NASA has further details on this test in a press release as well as on the SLS itself.