The space agency and its contractor, the appropriately-named AeroJet Rocketdyne, ran several tests on the same engine last year, focused on the controller and testing out different operating conditions on the SLS. After this week's success, the two organizations will start on new flight engine controllers while further testing the engines. NASA is also working on a test stand similar for the rocket's eventual first flight. The stand will attach to the core stage, while NASA attempts to fire four RS-25s at once.



Steve Wofford, engines manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama said that "... it's [also] a great feeling that this engine that has carried so many astronauts into space before is being prepared to take astronauts to space once again on SLS's first crewed flight." Yep, the engines are flight engines left from the Space Shuttle program before it finished in 2011 -- and were first designed back in the 70s.