generated as the rocket exhaust boiled away huge quantities of water. Antares Launch pad 0 at the Mid-Atlantic Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is equipped with a water tower above the ground, among the tallest in the world. Engine exhaust exits through ring of water jets in the launch platform, directly beneath engine nozzles. The system is capable of delivering per second. Additional storage tanks totaling may be added for static fire tests. Water not vaporized is held in a retention basin where it is tested before release. Space Launch System Following the retirement of the Space Shuttle program, pad B at launch complex 39 was upgraded for launches of the Space Launch System (SLS). SLS features an additional RS-25 liquid-fueled rocket engine along with an additional segment in each of its solid rocket boosters over the Space Shuttle program prompting upgrades to the system creating the Ignition Over-Pressure/Sound Suppression Water System (IOP/SS). The control system was upgraded including replacement of nearly of copper cables with of fiber optic cable. Capacity was upgraded to with a peak flow rate of per minute. The upgrade system was tested in December 2018 with . Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) JAXA "seeks to achieve the world's quietest launch" from their Noshiro Rocket Test Center in Akita with the installation of a sound suppression water system as well as sound absorbing walls. The H3 Scaled Acoustic Reduction Experiment completed in 2017 provided additional data about the noise generated during liftoff. References Acoustics Rocketry