This week in 2015, NASA completed the first developmental test series for the RS-25 engines that will power the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System. The series was designed to validate the new engine controller and engine performance at the higher thrust level before testing the actual flight engines. Here, the seventh and final test of the series is run at NASA’s Stennis Space Center’s A-1 Test Stand for a full-duration, 535 seconds. The Space Launch System is being developed and tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and will be the most powerful rocket ever built, enabling a new era of exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, launching crew and cargo on deep space exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating, and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage. (NASA)