NASA officials hold briefing following SLS test

NASA officials on Saturday hailed an "important milestone" following a hot fire test of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The four engines ignited shortly before 22:30 GMT (17:30 EST) and burned for more than a minute before the exercise was aborted. The test was supposed to last for eight minutes to simulate the rocket's climb to orbit. Speaking to reporters, John Honeycut, SLS Program Manager said it was hard to detect what exactly went wrong.

"What I saw in the control room that I was in it's pretty much the same thing you guys saw", he said.

"I know not everybody is feeling as happy as we otherwise could because we wanted to get eight minutes of a hot fire and we got over a minute, but I just want to remind people where we've been and where we're going and what an important milestone this is," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

The fiery show was the final step in the Green Run test series for the core stage of the rocket that will launch the agency's Artemis I mission. Under the Artemis program, NASA is working to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024. 

(Image Credits: Twitter/@NASA)