Watch Nasa test a super-powerful rocket engine designed for a manned mission to Mars

NASA has test-fired an astonishingly powerful engine which will one day propel a manned mission all the way to Mars.

The American space agency tested the RS-25 rocket engine at the Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, yesterday.

Nasa test the RS-25 rocket engine for space mission to carry humans to Mars

Nasa

This long shot gives a sense of just how much smoke the engine emitted

This gigantic booster spat out vast clouds of smoke as it fired up, sending thick smog billowing into the sky.

The super-powerful engine will eventually be fitted to a new Nasa rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS).

Four of the boosters will be use to power this rocket that's designed to "send humans further into deep space than they have ever travelled, including on the journey to Mars".

This pioneering engine is the most powerful booster in the world and will be used during the first mission of the Orion spacecraft in 2018, which will blast into space aboard the SLS.

A glimpse of the gigantic and super-powerful engine in action

Smoke billows out of the hellish-looking chamber where the booster was tested

Nasa scientists watch the test from a control room

Nasa

This Nasa graphic gives further details of the awesomely powerful RS-25 rocket engine

During this mission, the Space Launch System will "fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown".

“This is a mission that truly will do what hasn’t been done and learn what isn’t known,” said Mike Sarafin, mission manager at Nasa Headquarters in Washington.

The engine is about the size of a small car. It works by burning a mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen

An artist's impression of the Space Launch System, which will use the new boosters to carry the Orion spacecraft into the heavens

Once the Orion capsule is in space, it will dump its boosters

“It will blaze a trail that people will follow on the next Orion flight, pushing the edges of the envelope to prepare for that mission.”

It's hoped that the lessons learned from the Orion flights will help to pave the way for a journey to Mars.

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