NASA calls it the “Ignition Overpressure Protection and Sound Suppression water deluge system” and it is truly a sight to behold.
Just watch it in action:
In just over a minute the system releases roughly 450,000 gallons of water, sending it 100 feet into the air. The goal: reduce the extreme amount of heat and energy generated by a rocket launch.
For reference, that’s not too far off the amount of water required to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
This test was conducted Oct. 15 at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39B in Florida in preparation for Exploration Mission-1, which is set to launch in June 2020. It will be the first uncrewed flight of the Space Launch System, a huge rocket arrangement NASA has been working for over a decade, set to be the most powerful booster ever built.