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NASA Runs a Moon Rocket Engine for 500 Seconds, the Full Length of a Launch

Space

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A rocket engine test stand releasing a huge white steam cloud across the ground, with a rainbow arcing above it under a blue sky.
Steam and exhaust roll away from a stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi during an earlier firing of an RS-25 engine (illustrative). An engine stays fixed in the stand for a ground run like this one, which is not a launch."A Rainbow View of NASA's RS-25 Engine Test" by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, via nasa, BY-NC · CC-BY-NC-2.0

NASA fired RS-25 engine No. 10001 for 500 seconds on Oct. 21, 2026, at its Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The engine is a developmental one, and NASA says it will not be used in flight.

In its account of the test, NASA says the main objectives were to acceptance-test RS-25 flight parts for future Artemis missions and to validate a new heat shield, which it calls a thermal protection system, for the engine nozzle. The shield protects the nozzle from the heat surrounding the SLS rocket during launch.

The firing lasted almost eight and a half minutes, the same length of time RS-25 engines fire during a launch of NASA's SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. Operators on the Fred Haise Test Stand also took the engine up to the 111% power level, the thrust new production engines need to lift the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft to orbit.

An aerial view of a white steam column rising high above pine forest, with a test stand at the left edge and a waterway at the right.
A column of steam towers above the tree line at the Mississippi site while a stand runs (illustrative; an earlier firing of the same engine type). "NASA Showcases Flight Engine Test During Stennis Open House" by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, via nasa, BY-NC

According to NASA, the hot fire test allows the agency and prime contractor L3Harris Technologies to gather performance data. However, independent verification of the test results has not yet been released.

NASA says four RS-25 engines produce up to 2 million pounds of combined thrust at the launch of each Artemis mission, and that every RS-25 engine is tested and proven flightworthy at Stennis before use. Test teams there are drawn from NASA, L3Harris and Nova Space Solutions.

Sources

By Victor KuklinWriter

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