The massive plume of smoke many Utahns spotted in northern Utah wasn't a destructive fire, it was rocket science.

NASA and Northrop Grumman conducted one more full-scale static fire test of a massive rocket motor in Promontory, Utah.

The rocket, known as a Flight Support Booster, or the FSB-1, is a rocket motor meant to launch a crafts to space.

During more than two-minute test, the motor produced over 3.6 million pounds of thrust.

Two of the Space Launch System boosters, or SLS, will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust to escape earth for missions that are hoped to put humans on different solid ground.

According to a press release from Northrop Grumman, the five-segment booster, measuring 154 feet, provides 20 percent greater average thrust than the shuttle boosters, giving the rocket the ability to deliver more than any existing launch vehicle.

The company has delivered the first set of motor segments and the second set is nearly complete. Test could be used in missions following Artemis III.

Northrop Grumman has been involved in manufacturing for space flights for more than 50 years and employs over 90,000 people.

To learn more about the rocket for the upcoming missions, that NASA calls the most powerful in the world visit:

nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html.

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