PROMONTORY, Utah — NASA on Tuesday tested one of the solid rocket boosters that would power its new rocket, the Space Launch System, which the agency hopes will one day fly to Mars.

The engine sent a torrent of fire gushing from the nozzle and a volcano-like plume of smoke.

After an hour delay because of a glitch with the ground computer system, the booster fired horizontally for just over two minutes at the test site.

The booster test comes ahead of the rocket’s first mission, planned for 2018, when it would launch the Orion spacecraft, with no one aboard, on a three-week journey that would take it around the moon.

Ultimately, NASA plans to use the Space Launch System to launch to Mars, but there have been some in Congress who are pushing the agency to return to the moon instead.

Washington Post