NASA came one step closer to having the agency’s new super heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) booster send crews to locations further out into the Solar System than has ever been attempted before. On Sept. 22, 2015, NASA and Orbital ATK carried out a more reserved test than the solid rocket test firings that normally light up the deserts of Utah.

Space Launch System SLS aft skirt off-motor hot fire test Orbital ATK 2 photo posted on SpaceFlight Insider

Known by the rather unwieldy name of the “aft skirt off-motor hot fire test” the review checked out the avionics and Thrust Vector Control (TVC) elements of the five-segment solid rocket boosters that are planned for use on the first versions of SLS.

A prototype SLS avionics command and control system was used during the recent test and worked to validate the booster’s TVC system.

The new avionics system is a critical aspect of SLS’ twin boosters. It controls power distribution, steers the boosters themselves, initiates the motor’s pyrotechnic devices, and communicates with the flight computers.

The SRB’s avionics package is new, but the thrust vector control system it controls is the same that the boosters that NASA’s space shuttles utilized during the thirty-year course of the program.

Read the full story from Spaceflight Insider here.