At one point, cameras beneath the test stand showed flames at the base of one engine where cork insulation caught fire. “We were in great shape,” said John Shannon, vice president and program manager for the Space Launch System at Boeing, which built the core stage. There, it and other pieces of the rocket including two strap-on rocket boosters, a second stage and the Orion crew capsule will be put together. The launch will carry the Orion module, as well as a variety of small CubeSats, on a course to the moon. The capsule will orbit the moon several times, much as in NASA’s Apollo 8 mission, before returning to Earth and splashing down in a water landing.

Source: New York Times March 18, 2021 15:00 UTC