Loud Video: NASA Test Fires Largest-Ever Solid Rocket Motor

Looks powerful enough to affect the rotation of the planet if left running long enough. I wonder if it releases any greenhouse gasses.

Two main things missing.
1: What did the dirt look like after being hit by that rocket.
2: Why the hell did they not show the top of the cloud.

That was a giant waste of energy they could have pushed a turbine or something and made up some of that lost energy

@mrclean816
I work at a small aerospace company and several of my coworkers have actually seen these types of tests in person. The sand behind the rocket literally melts and turns to glass in those insane amounts of heat.

@wryip350

Your comment is such a waste of energy, you could have used your all of that energy typing to power a small village. Dude get over yourself, its a rocket test.

@lordflashheart

what? are you serious, effect the rotation of the planet? we have exploded hydrogen bombs that did nothing to the planets rotation, large volcanoes erupt they may have an effect but its of the very slightest of magnitudes!

bro release your tree put down you latte and think about what you say :)

lol pretty serious power, Wryip, for the sake of knowing if the astronauts we send in space are safe, I think they can do what they like with the fuel they have.

im so tired of controlled explosions, can we move on to something better?

The motor was intended to be used in the heavy-lift rocket segment of the Cancellation program that NASA has ended.
Fix'd

Big reusable solid rockets are about as smart as washing paper plates. Liquid flybacks are the way to go baby.

@ Moon born

Liquid fly back is an interesting idea, but so far liquid rockets have not been anywhere near as powerful as this solid rocket booster is. At this moment, the most powerful single chamber liquid fueled rocket is the Rocketdyne F1 @ 1.522 million pounds of thrust. For heavy lifting solid rockets are better atm.

Developed for the way over budget and under-performing Ares I, which was to launch the Orion spaceship. It couldn't lift Orion (the whole thing was massively overweight) so Orion had to be downsized and segments added to the rocket, decreasing Orion's capability at every change.

A prime example of why NASA and military procurement have become jokes.

Also a serious polluter compared to kerosene/liquid oxygen rockets, plus it suffers the main weakness of all solid rockets: it can't be shut off in case of malfunction.

Yup - no 'kill' switch, which makes getting a crewed spacecraft to safety a lot tougher. Because of this the Orion's escape tower is huge, and there is some question if it could even get Orion out of the way of the destruct.

Now ATK dreams of convincing NASA to use this thing as SRB's on a new heavy lifter, claiming incorrectly that any such rocket needs solids to loft >100 metric tonnes.

Hmmmm....don't remember any attached to Saturn V - must have been a couple of those stealthy SRB's ;)

Personally, I'd prefer that NASA go with funding a new COTS competition for a heavy lifter. Let ATK compete with SpaceX and ULA to see who can do it on time and cheaper - and IMO ATK will lose that bang/buck contest to either competitor.

KAMEHAMEHAAAAAA~~~~~~~~~~

Now that is some serious power...
Ivan Malagurski

The heavy lifter of the Constellation Program is the Ares V. This motor is one of two SRBs mounted to a larger frame which would stand as tall as a Saturn rocket. The Ares V is not human rated. It was only intended for carry the same to greater cargo capacity as the space shuttle. The Ares I is designed for astronaut voyage.

"Welcome! to the Federation Starship SS Buttcrack!!!"

how does the rocket not crush itself? 3.6 million pounds of thrust!! Its stationary. So how ever and where ever it is anchored down has to take all that force. I am sure they didnt blast the rocket at full blast, but still...

Best glassblower ever?

how about they strap 12 of these things to a huge ship to geosynch orbit and make a space elevator so we don't have to mess with rockets any more.

Not bad, but make it 100 times more powerful and pollution free. The human race can do better. This is old tech :(

@bdotalex: what's you suggestion? where's the new tech?

*your*

Wow, talk about green house gases and saving the planet bullshit ha, we rather go out in style. That probably just offset all that crap we just recycled up to now lol, but thats kinda not funny.