A subscale solid rocket motor blazed to life producing 50,000 pounds of thrust during a vertical test firing at the Redstone Test Center’s Test Area 5 on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center located on Redstone Arsenal conducted the test at Redstone so that the subscale solid rocket motor could be fired in a vertical position similar to the orientation of solid rocket boosters on a launch pad. Both the propellant bore and the nozzle included intentional flaws. Typical flight qualification motors do not allow intentional defects, so only nominal performance parameters are tested. Testing flawed components allows engineers to enhance and validate their modeling techniques for off nominal conditions. Data collected from these tests will help improve the analytical models used in the design and certification of solid rocket motors. This improved capability will allow solid rocket motors to go from design to flight with fewer modification and challenges.
Image credit: Redstone Test Center
