VIDEO: NASA space shuttle main engine hot fire test a success - Meet the RS-25

01/13/2015 - 00:00

By Robert Z. Pearlman -

For the first time in more than three-and-a-half years, a space shuttle main engine roared to life on Friday (Jan. 9) in support of NASA's new heavy-lift rocket.

The space shuttle main engine (SSME), now renamed the RS-25D, fired for 500 seconds atop the A-1 test stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

READ MORE ON COLLECT SPACE