The Most Powerful Booster Rocket Ever Tested

The ignition of Development Motor-2: DM-2 is the largest and most powerful solid rocket motor designed for flight. The Aug. 31 static test was conducted by ATK Aerospace Systems in Promontory, Utah. DM-2 is managed by the Ares Projects Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

This is the most heavily instrumented solid rocket motor in NASA history with a total of 53 test objectives measured through more than 760 instruments.

DM-2 was chilled to 40 degrees Fahrenheit as the test was designed to assess performance at the lowest end of the temperature range.

Development Motor-2 is the second five segment solid rocket motor to be tested for Ares first stage.

The motor is designed to generate 3.6 million pounds of thrust and information collected from this test will be evaluated to better understand the robustness of motor design.

Smoke and fire billow as the DM-2 motor roars into a successful test in Brigham City, Utah, on Aug. 31.

The 154 foot long motor unleashed 3.6 million pounds of thrust.