The Artemis I launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from LC-39B at the Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16, 2022, marked the first time in 11 years that the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) formerly used for the Space Shuttle program lit on a launch pad and hauled a spaceship out of Earth’s dense lower atmosphere.
Like the Space Shuttle’s first flight in 1981, at the moment of ignition, the twin five-segment SRBs on Artemis I became the most-powerful solid rockets ever flown, and their performance looks to have been spot-on pre-flight predictions.