--- title: NASA Test-Fires The Biggest Rocket Booster Ever Made description: NASA successfully fired up a huge rocket booster on Wednesday in the Utah desert, passing a major milestone for future deep-space missions. canonical: https://time.com/3741754/nasa-biggest-rocket-booster-test-fire-sls/ author: Helen Regan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-12T07:08:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T05:06:10.919Z article:section: Science og:title: Watch NASA Fire Up the Biggest Rocket Booster Ever og:description: And blast a serious hole in the Utah desert in the process. og:url: https://time.com/3741754/nasa-biggest-rocket-booster-test-fire-sls/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c289f31709dcf50/698783420b72e3e7906de20b/nasa-rocket.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: NASA rocket og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch NASA Fire Up the Biggest Rocket Booster Ever twitter:description: And blast a serious hole in the Utah desert in the process. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c289f31709dcf50/698783420b72e3e7906de20b/nasa-rocket.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch NASA Fire Up the Biggest Rocket Booster Ever by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Mar 12, 2015 7:08 AM UTC  Screen shot—NASA by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Mar 12, 2015 7:08 AM UTC NASA successfully fired up a huge new rocket booster at its Utah test facility on Wednesday, passing a major [milestone](http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/march/nasas-space-launch-system-booster-passes-major-ground-test/#.VQEo5jqVtDc) for future deep-space missions. The 117-foot booster is the biggest ever built and NASA says it’s powerful enough to reach beyond the Moon, to asteroids or even Mars. Apart from making a serious dent in the Utah desert, the booster is part of a Space Launch System (SLS) being developed by the space agency that is scheduled to blast off in 2018. The rocket was fired for two minutes (the same amount of time it takes to launch the SLS) and produced about 3.6 million pounds of thrust. “The work being done around the country today to build the SLS is laying a solid foundation for future exploration missions, and these missions will enable us to pioneer far into the solar system,” said William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3741754/nasa-biggest-rocket-booster-test-fire-sls/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3741754/nasa-biggest-rocket-booster-test-fire-sls/"},"headline":"Watch NASA Fire Up the Biggest Rocket Booster Ever","datePublished":"2015-03-12T07:08:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:06:10.919Z","description":"And blast a serious hole in the Utah desert in the process.","url":"https://time.com/3741754/nasa-biggest-rocket-booster-test-fire-sls/","keywords":["space travel","NASA","Utah"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c289f31709dcf50/698783420b72e3e7906de20b/nasa-rocket.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Regan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/helen-regan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c289f31709dcf50/698783420b72e3e7906de20b/nasa-rocket.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NASA rocket","caption":"","creditText":"Screen shot—NASA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space-travel/","name":"space travel"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3741754/nasa-biggest-rocket-booster-test-fire-sls/","name":"Watch NASA Fire Up the Biggest Rocket Booster Ever"}}]}] ```