NASA: Ares-1 Succesful Launch!

NASA Ares I-X mission managers watch as NASA's Ares I-X rocket launches from pad 39b at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. The flight test will provide NASA with an early opportunity to test and prove flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA's first flight test for the agency's next-generation spacecraft and launch vehicle system, called Ares I-X, will bring NASA one step closer to its exploration goals. The flight test will provide NASA with an early opportunity to test and prove flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I.

NASA: ARES 1-X in High Bay 3 of VAB = Fab!

Platforms surround the Ares I-X in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building before it was moved to the launch pad on Oct. 20, 2009. Closer in height to the hulking Saturn V moon rockets than the space shuttle, Ares I-X looks unlike any rocket that's ever stood at Launch Complex 39. But it blends familiar hardware from existing programs with newly developed components.

Four first-stage, solid-fuel booster segments are derived from the Space Shuttle Program. A simulated fifth booster segment contains Atlas-V-based avionics, and the rocket's roll control system comes from the Peacekeeper missile. The launch abort system, simulated crew and service modules, upper stage, and various connecting structures all are original.

Image Credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

NASA: ARES 1 Rocket en route to Launch Pad

Talk about pressure. As the troubled successor to NASA's space shuttle powers up for its first flight test, a White House panel is weighing up whether to cancel the project.

The Ares I rocket is designed to carry a crew capsule called Orion to Earth orbit, where it could dock with the International Space Station or form part of a mission to the moon. But it has been plagued with budget problems and technical hitches.

On 27 October – or a few days later, depending on how preparations go – NASA is expected to launch the first Ares I test flight. A solid-fuel rocket like those used on the space shuttle will boost a dummy second stage and crew capsule to an altitude of about 45 kilometres. The flight will determine the rocket's stability and test its flight-control software.

The stakes are high. A White House panel has been considering cancelling Ares I in favour of a commercial launcher. Its final report is expected this week.

Mark Lewis, former chief scientist for the US air force and president-elect of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, recognises that policy-makers will be watching the outcome closely, but warns against overreacting to any technical problems that emerge during the test.

"If they have any sort of glitch and someone says, 'Oh, we have to cancel the programme now,' they've completely missed the point," he says. "There are always things you learn in flight that you missed or you didn't properly simulate."