One of the giant boosters intended to power the first stage of flight on Nasa's next rocket has been tested in Utah.

The ATK booster, developed as part of Nasa's Constellation project, is a development of the solid rocket motors used to lift the space shuttle off the launch pad.

President Obama cancelled the Constellation project in February, but there is still a strong chance that the ATK booster could play a part in future Nasa launch vehicles.

Nasa's Alex Priskos said the data gathered from the test was "absolutely excellent", giving "the chamber pressures and the thrust pressures that we were expecting".