The booster separation motors or BSMs on the Space Shuttle were relatively small rocket motors that separated the reusable solid rocket boosters (SRB) from the orbiter after SRB burnout. Eight booster separation motors were attached to each of the shuttle's two reusable solid rocket boosters, four on the forward frustum and four on the aft skirt.

On several early satellite launches, booster stages failed to separate. On a military mission, the final booster stage overtook and bumped the spacecraft after separation, damaging critical equipment in the spacecraft.

Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) separation during STS-117. The two reusable SRBs provided the main thrust to lift the shuttle off the launch pad and up to an altitude of about 150,000 ft (28 mi; 46 km).

Seventy- five seconds after SRB separation, the SRBs reach apogee at an altitude of ~220,000 feet (41 miles). During decent through the Earth’s atmosphere, the SRBs aerodynamically bleed energy, slowing down sufficiently

In this study, the staging of two vehicle concepts are considered, one which stages at Mach 3 with booster glide back to launch site and the other stages at Mach 6 with a booster that flies back to the launch site using air breathing jet engines. The two flight profiles are illustrated in Fig. 1.

Oct 22, 2014 · Just over two minutes into the first flight of SLS, 16 booster separation motors will fire simultaneously and safely push the two solid rocket boosters away from the rocket’s core.

Nov 19, 2015 · NASA’s new heavy-lift launch vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS), will carry three times the payload of the space shuttle, requiring innovative rocket design. The SLS configuration consists of a center core stage with four RS-25 engines and two solid rocket boosters (SRBs), which separate from the core as fuel is exhausted soon after liftoff.

Nov 9, 2015 · The SLS configuration consists of a center core and two solid rocket boosters, which separate from the core as their fuel is exhausted two minutes from liftoff. There are 16 booster-separation motors (BSMs), whose short-duration burn provide the thrust to push the boosters away from the core.

Feb 23, 2024 · This paper details recent efforts in generating aerodynamic data used to create databases for the SLS during the booster separation event using viscous computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations obtained using NASA’s FUN3D solver.

Dec. 5, 2014 — An onboard camera records the separation of one of the Delta IV Heavy rocket boosters as it separates following lift off from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida carrying NASA’s Orion spacecraft on an unpiloted flight test to Earth orbit.