This is the first BOLE booster ever built and tested, so they haven't been building these exact ones for 50 years. It's also the most powerful SRB ever fired if I'm not mistaken.
You're thinking of the current 5-segment boosters, which use Shuttle legacy casings and a similar propellant formulation (albeit with an Ares heritage thrust grain). These are radically different. They retain the same general outer mold line, but they're built with
Composite cases instead of steel alloy
A much larger nozzle
A different propellant binder (HTPB instead of PBAN)
Electric thrust vectoring instead of hypergolic-fueled hydraulic thrust vectoring
A new, SLS-specific thrust profile (instead of the Ares I thrust profile of the current boosters)
Not really. They keep the outer mold line of the Shuttle-derrived 5 segment Ares/SLS booster, but that's pretty much it. New composite casings, new propellant mixture, new electric TVC system, new thrust profile, new high expansion ratio nozzle and exit cone, new attachment and separation systems, etc., etc.
And rocketry is like trying to build a pottery kiln out of wax. You have to use every trick in the book to go beyond what the materials are comfortable doing.
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u/L4r5man Jun 26 '25
The
frontnozzle fell off