NASA Hot-Fires RS-25 Engine for 500 Seconds at 111% Power in Artemis Test at Stennis
NASA conducted a hot-fire test of RS-25 engine No. 10001 on Oct. 21 on the Fred Haise Test Stand at the agency's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Test teams fired the developmental engine for almost eight and a half minutes (500 seconds), the same amount of time RS-25 engines fire during launch of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
During the test, operators also fired the engine up to the 111% power level, matching the thrust needed for new production engines to launch the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft to orbit.
According to NASA, the main objectives of the test were to acceptance test RS-25 flight components for future Artemis missions and to validate a new thermal protection system, which protects the RS-25 engine nozzle from the thermal environment surrounding the SLS during launch.
The developmental engine will not be used in flight. NASA said the hot fire provides the agency and its prime contractor, L3Harris Technologies, with critical data to improve engine performance and reliability. The test was conducted by a team of operators from NASA, L3Harris, and Nova Space Solutions.
Four RS-25 engines power each SLS rocket, producing up to 2 million pounds of combined thrust. All RS-25 engines are tested and proven flightworthy at NASA Stennis prior to use.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：10月21日，RS-25 发动机在 NASA Stennis 航天中心 Fred Haise 试车台点火试车，蒸汽云腾起。美国国家航空航天局 NASA 官方发布，NASA/Danny Nowlin 摄，公共领域。Photo: RS-25 engine hot-fire test on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Oct. 21, 2026. Credit: NASA/Danny Nowlin (public domain).
