The largest rocket element we have ever built – the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket – fired its four engines for a full eight minutes on Thursday, March 18, at our Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

The successful “hot fire” test is a critical milestone ahead of the Artemis I mission, which will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a test flight around the Moon and back to Earth, paving the way for future Artemis missions with astronauts.

Next, engineers will scrutinize the data and refurbish the stage prior to delivery to our Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be assembled with the Orion spacecraft and the other parts of the rocket. The next time we’ll see the rocket light up will be on the launch pad for liftoff of Artemis I to the Moon.

You Asked, We Answered – In this new episode of #AskNASA, our head of planetary science, Dr. Lori Glaze, answers your questions about what’s out there in our solar system. Tune in to learn about volcanic moons, the asteroid belt, and more.

Meet Karen Mae Baldonado – As an intern at our Langley Research Center, Karen Mae Baldonao is working on rovers that will land on other planets. She is also a senior at the City College of New York where she studies Mechanical Engineering.

“I want to make sure by excelling in my engineering major and interning at NASA, that not only do I create a path for younger women to follow, but that there will be younger women to follow. I want more women in STEM to see their worth and go after what they really want, like I did.”

Women’s History Month has the power to show young women everywhere what their true potential could be. In an interview, Karen shares how she found her place at NASA.

Our Hubble Space Telescope is giving astronomers a view of changes in Saturn’s vast and turbulent atmosphere as the planet’s northern hemisphere summer transitions to fall as shown in this series of images taken in 2018, 2019, and 2020 (left to right).

Credits: NASA/ESA/STScI/A. Simon/R. Roth