NASA tests incredible engine designed to power a spaceship to Mars

NASA has test-fired an astonishingly powerful engine which will one day propel a manned mission all the way to Mars.

The American space agency tested the RS-25 rocket engine at the Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, in front of an audience of officials, contractors and media.

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This super strong booster is based on an engine fitted to the space shuttle, but is now being adapted for a new NASA project called the Space Launch System (SLS).

On Thursday, the experimental engine was fired for 420 seconds, marking the third time it has been successfully tested.

Eventually, four of the engines will be strapped to a huge fuel container to make a massively powerful rocket which will "send humans further into deep space than they have ever travelled, including on the journey to Mars".

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This pioneering engine is the most powerful booster in the world and will be used during the first mission of the Orion spacecraft in 2018.