NASA's Second Hot Fire Test for the Artemis Moon Rocket (Developed in Huntsville, AL)

Firing its engines for more than eight minutes, the Space Launch System ran a successful stationary test of its rocket stage on Thursday at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.CreditCredit...NASA TV

By David W. Brown and Kenneth Chang

• March 18, 2021Updated 8:17 p.m. ET

(N.Y. Times Report, Full story HERE.)

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. — On Thursday, NASA’s new big rocket, the Space Launch System, ignited four mighty engines for more than eight minutes and went nowhere.

That was good news for the American goal of sending astronauts to the moon in the coming years. Despite a budget that has grown by billions of dollars and a schedule that is years late, NASA can now move the vehicle to Kennedy Space Center in Florida and prepare it for an actual launch, with no astronauts aboard, around the moon.

“What a great day and a great test,” Steve Jurczyk, NASA’s acting administrator said during a news conference after the test. “This is a major step in advancing our goals.”