- [Narrator] This is almost
half a million gallons of water
being blasted a hundred feet into the air.
The most impressive part?
It was all done in just 60 seconds.
NASA created the massive fountain
as part of a test for
its Space Launch System,
scheduled to launch for
the first time in 2020.
It will be the largest,
most powerful rocket
NASA has ever built.
Standing upright, the SLS
will reach 322 feet in height,
17 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty,
and weigh almost 6 million pounds.
Its first planned mission?
A 25-day trip around the moon.
When it lifts off, its
engines will generate
8.4 million pounds of force
and sound waves so
powerful that they could
easily destroy the rocket
from the ground up.
That's where NASA's Ignition Overpressure
and Sound Suppression System comes in.
NASA projects the water
onto and over the launchpad
during ignition and liftoff.
This not only protects the
ground from the rocket's engines
it also prevents the sound waves
from bouncing off the ground and back up
which could cause catastrophic
damage to the engines.
The system also prevents the giant flames
generated by the engines from
catching anything on fire.
During an actual launch, some of the water
will evaporate due to the extreme heat,
while the rest exits through nozzles.
This test is just one of many more
that NASA will conduct
over the coming months
in preparation for the
rocket's first launch.
The SLS is designed for
deeper space missions
able to explore far beyond Earth's orbit.
It can carry astronauts
in an Orion capsule,
or ferry other cargo,
like exploratory robots,
to distant worlds like Jupiter and Mars.
Pretty impressive, huh?
This latest test, performed
in the beginning of October,
was to evaluate any needed upgrades,
like corrosion control,
renovating the water storage tank,
and checking the conditions
of the pipes and valves.
Now, it will be in tip-top shape
for when the SLS is ready to
make its debut flight in 2020.
