A successful water flow test with the mobile launcher at Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39B on July 2, 2019, put NASA one step closer to returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, with the goal of sending humans to Mars. It was the first of nine tests to verify the sound suppression system is ready for launch of NASA’s Space Launch System for the first Artemis mission.


Approximately 450,000 gallons of water was released from an elevated water tank and distributed through large diameter piping and valves to water nozzles located in the Pad B flame deflector, the mobile launcher flame hole and on the launcher’s blast deck in just 45 seconds. That’s enough water to fill 45 residential swimming pools! The system reached a peak flow rate of 1.1 million gallons per minute.

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