This
story was updated at 10:32 a.m. EDT.
For the
first time in nearly 30 years, a brand new NASA rocket has rolled out to a
seaside launching pad in Florida to prepare for a launch test debut.
The rocket
is Ares I-X a suborbital prototype for the Ares I rocket NASA plans to
use to launch its shuttle successor, the Orion spacecraft. Currently the
world's tallest booster in service, the Ares I-X rolled out to the launch pad early
Tuesday and is slated to blast off Oct. 27 at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) on a short
demonstration flight.
"The Ares
I-X is going to fly straight up and straight out," said NASA commentator George
Diller as the 327-foot (100-meter) tall rocket began moving toward Launch Pad
39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "During that time we'll be testing
the stage separation to determine how well the first stage separation motors
perform, as well as the performance of the booster itself, namely the
parachutes and other apparatus that will deploy."
The $445
million rocket's rollout comes on the eve of a final report from an independent
committee appointed by the White House to review NASA's plans for future human
spaceflight.
During a
series of summer meetings, the committee found that NASA does not have the
budget to fund its vision of replacing the shuttle fleet by 2015 and returning
astronauts to the moon by 2020. Led by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman
Augustine, the committee is due to release a report Thursday that details
several options for President Barack Obama's consideration, some of which do
not include the Ares I rocket at all.
Historic,
spectacular rollout
The
committee's upcoming report aside, the rollout of Ares I-X provided a
spectacular sight, one which NASA broadcast live on NASA TV in its entirety.
Reporters and photographers, along with NASA personnel, could be seen watching
the giant rocket slowly make the 4.2-mile (6.7-km) launch pad trek.
Not since the
April 1981 test flight of NASA's space shuttle Columbia has NASA test launched
a new rocket designed to carry astronauts into space. Like Columbia and its
external tank, the towering Ares I-X rocket is painted in all white and gleamed
in the glare of blazing xenon spotlights as it emerged from the 52-story
Vehicle Assembly Building. But unlike that first shuttle flight, Ares I-X will
be unmanned.
"Ares I-X
is rolling!" Diller said as NASA's massive Apollo-era crawler-transporter
vehicle began hauling the new rocket to Pad 39B at 1:39 a.m. EDT (0539 GMT).
The trip
took about seven hours and started over an hour late due to slight delays in
preparation work, but the process appeared to go smoothly in the end.
"This has
been a little bit slow-going, but primarily because this is the first time
we've ever done this," Diller said.
The
skyscraping Ares I-X rocket stands 143 feet (44 meters) taller than NASA's
space shuttles. It is the tallest rocket to emerge from the Vehicle Assembly
Building since the massive 363-foot (110-meter) Saturn V rocket used to launch Apollo
astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Saturn
V holds the record for the tallest, most powerful rocket in history, but Ares
I-X is the tallest to fly today. For comparison, NASA's space shuttles stand about
184 feet (56 meters) tall in launch position.
The space
shuttle Atlantis is currently perched atop its own launch pad, Pad 39A for a
planned Nov. 16 liftoff. Not since 1975, when a Saturn IB rocket launched an
Apollo capsule to meet a Soyuz spacecraft from the Soviet Union, has a
non-shuttle rocket sat atop a NASA launch pad.
"It's neat
to see where we're going next [and] what the next step will be," said Atlantis
commander Charlie Hobaugh, who arrived at the Kennedy Space Center Monday for
prelaunch training. "And that when we stop flying the shuttle at some future point,
it's not the end. It's actually the beginning."
The Ares
I-X rocket weighs 1.8 million pounds (816,466 kg), and NASA engineers expected
its tip to sway up to 1 foot (0.3 meters) during the rollout. Altogether, the
Ares I-X rocket, its Mobile Launch Platform and the crawler-transporter itself
weigh about 16 million pounds (7.2 million kg).
Major
launch test ahead
The Ares
I-X test rocket has three
chances to launch next week, one a day each between Oct. 27 and Oct. 29.
NASA initially planned to only have two days to try and fly Ares I-X, but on
Monday the agency pushed the launch target for the space shuttle Atlantis to
Nov. 16 a four-day delay in order to allow the third opportunity.
NASA's Ares
I rocket is a two-stage launcher made up of a giant five-segment
solid rocket booster first stage (similar to the four-segment versions used
on the space shuttle) and a liquid-fueled second stage. Completing the rocket
is the Orion crew capsule and a launch abort system tower at the top. The
rocket is tall and slender, and is thicker at the top than on the bottom.
The Ares
I-X is not a full Ares I rocket. Its first stage is a four-segment solid rocket
booster repurposed from the shuttle fleet's inventory capped with a
dummy fifth segment. The thicker second stage, Orion crew capsule and launch
abort system are also all mock-ups built to simulate the size and mass of the
real thing.
During next
week's launch test, the flight is expected to last just over two minutes and
reach an altitude of about 28 miles (45 km) as the Ares I-X rocket launches
eastward over the Atlantic Ocean. First stage separation will come about two
minutes, 33 seconds into the flight, with the first stage parachuting down to
the ocean to be recovered. The dummy second stage and Orion mockups will crash
into the ocean and not be recovered, mission managers have said.
The Ares
I-X flight is the first of three planned test flights for the Ares I rocket.
The next launch, dubbed Ares I-Y, is slated to launch in 2014 and include a
real second stage.
The third
mission, called Orion I, is planned to launch an actual Orion spacecraft into
orbit, but on an unmanned test flight, Diller said.
SPACE.com
will provide full coverage of NASA's Ares I-X test flight with Managing Editor
Tariq Malik and Staff Writer Clara Moskowitz. Click here for full mission coverage.
advertisement
