The motor, which represents a new way of doing business for NASA, was designed and constructed by members of the Hybrid Propulsion Demonstration Program consortium. Companies involved in the consortium are: Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Boeing Rocketdyne, Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems, Thiokol Corporation and United Technologies Chemical Systems Division.

The motor resembles the solid rocket boosters used on the Space Shuttle. This particular hybrid motor featured new technologies including a revolutionary new head-end combustion approach and ignition system designed by Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems in New Orleans.

It is 70 inches in diameter, about 45 feet long, and weighs 125,000 pounds. The motor uses a solid fuel that is mixed and then poured into the casing of the motor and allowed to set and turn into a rubbery, semisolid form - similar to how gelatin is mixed, poured and allowed to set until it becomes almost solid.

To ignite the motor and continue the process of ignition during its flight, an oxidizer must be injected into the core of the motor. The oxidizer must continually be fed into the motor as long as the motor is required to function. When the flow of oxidizer stops, the motor shuts down.

The hybrid rocket motor being tested at Stennis is also environmentally safe. According to the NASA Environmental Office at Stennis, an environmental assessment was conducted that reviewed the possible impacts of testing the 250,000-pound thrust motor at Stennis Space Center.

"The environmental impacts identified in the environmental assessment are rocket motor combustion air emissions and short-term noise," said NASA's Jennette Gordon, an environmental specialist at Stennis. "Short-term noise only impacts activities close to the test stand and, due to our buffer zone, does not impact local communities."

The test, which was conducted on the center's E-1 test facility, ran for 15 seconds. At this time, test data indicates that the motor performance was extremely stable throughout the test, and everything went according to plan.

"This long-duration test of the 250k hybrid rocket motor was an outstanding success," said NASA's Robert Bruce, project manager of the Hybrid Propulsion Demonstration Program at Stennis Space Center. "We're very happy to see our customer (the consortium) experience such great success, since they've been working on this program for so many years. The Stennis test team did an outstanding job."

This was the second of several tests that will be performed on two separate Hybrid Propulsion Demonstration Program hybrid motors. The tests will demonstrate two different methods of ignition, as well as different methods of injecting the oxidizer.