NASA wraps up Space Launch System engine test, Buzz Aldrin points way to Mars

On Thursday, NASA completed an initial developmental test series using an RS-25 engine of the sort that will drive NASA's next-generation launch vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS).

NASA's SLS is a successor to the Space Shuttle program and the shuttered Constellation Project. In development since 2011, the SLS is slated to make its first flight in 2018 and will carry astronauts and cargo on missions from Low-Earth Orbit jaunts to deeper space exploration, including Mars missions.

NASA engineers at the Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, fired up a developmental, Aerojet Rocketdyne-designed RS-25 engine for 535 minutes total earlier this August. When it's ignited, the RS-25 can consume more than 300 gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen per second, which burns hotter than 3,300 degrees Celsius.