This story was updated at 11:41 a.m.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Bad weather and a series of unlucky
events thwarted repeated attempts by NASA to launch the prototype Ares I-X
rocket on a test flight Tuesday.
Launch teams tried to launch
the rocket several times over the course of four hours, but clouds, winds
and the threat of rain prevented the flight. NASA's next chance to launch the untested
rocket comes Wednesday.
"We had some opportunities, we just didn't get there -
the weather didn't cooperate," said launch director Ed Mango.
Multiple Delays
At one point the $445 million rocket was poised
to launch to take advantage of a brief window of clear skies, only to be
hindered in the final minutes by an errant boat that had strayed into the
danger zone which the rocket would fly
over after liftoff. After that issue was cleared NASA intended to try again
a few minutes later, but a cloud was spotted passing over the launch pad,
violating weather concerns.
Before that, a sock that covered a sensor instrument on the
top of the rocket got stalled as crews attempted to pull the cover off. But
that issue, too, was resolved.
"There was huge applause here in the control room when
it finally broke off and came clear," said Ares I-X deputy mission manager
Jon Cowart. "Glad they got that turned around and got that fixed. But that
did delay us."
The test rocket was originally slated to lift off this
morning at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) from Launch
Pad 39B here at Kennedy Space Center. NASA had until noon EDT (1600 GMT)
today to loft the rocket before its four-hour launch window was up and the
launch team had to stand down until Wednesday. All the booster needed was about
10 minutes of clear skies within that time.
Launch was often foiled by a new
"triboelectrification rule" - which prevents the vehicle from
blasting off into clouds because it could trigger static electricity that may
interfere with onboard instruments.
Slightly better weather conditions are expected for
Wednesday, when weather officer Kathy Winters has predicted a 60 percent chance
of clear skies. That's an improvement over Tuesday's forecast, which held only
40 percent odds of favorable weather.
"I feel more optimistic about Wednesday than
Tuesday," Winters said over the weekend.
Ares I-X is the first trial version of
NASA's Ares I booster, a next-generation rocket intended to replace the space
shuttle as a vehicle to carry astronauts to low-Earth orbit and, ultimately, on
missions to the moon. The test rocket includes a real solid-rocket first stage,
with a dummy second stage and mock Orion crew module atop it.
If Ares I-X does not launch this week, NASA may have to
stand down until sometime in November due to other
launch traffic, including a shuttle mission slated to lift off from a
nearby launch pad Nov. 16. The 327-foot (100-meter) rocket, currently the
world's tallest booster capable of launching, may have another chance to fly
Thursday, mission managers have said.
Next-generation spacecraft
The Ares I-X flight is expected to last a little over two
minutes. The rocket is slated to loft eastward, reaching a maximum altitude of
about 150,000 feet, or 28 miles (46 km), before arcing back down into the
Atlantic Ocean.
The mission's purpose is to collect data on the rocket's
design and performance. Cameras on the ground and aboard an airplane will
gather visual evidence of the rocket's flight, while over 700 sensors onboard
will record comprehensive measurements.
As an untested rocket, the mission does come with a higher
degree of risk than the more routine space shuttle missions, managers said.
"There are no guarantees," Ares I-X mission
manager Bob Ess said on Monday. "We think we're ready to go from a vehicle
point of view. The whole point of tomorrow is to learn from it."
In fact, the novel aspect of the experimental flight is
exciting to the rocket scientists.
"This developmental flight test stuff is a lot of
fun," Mango said.
Future plans
Regardless of the outcome of Ares I-X, the ultimate fate of
Ares I remains uncertain. Plans for the rocket, along with the Constellation
program under which it falls, are under review by the Obama administration. A
presidential panel submitted
a report last week summarizing NASA's plans and offering a set of options
for the future.
The report suggested that NASA abandon Ares I and allow
commercial companies to step in and provide a vehicle capable of transporting
humans to low-Earth orbit. That way, NASA could focus on building spacecraft to
take people back to the moon and beyond.
The space agency has been working to ready the Ares I rocket
and Orion crew capsules for operation in 2015 with the goal of returning to the
moon by 2020. But the recent review found that the new rocket and spacecraft
will likely not be ready until 2017.
Constellation program manager Jeff Hanley said the upcoming
flight test would be useful, even if Ares I is never to be built.
"It's certainly incredibly important to the Ares
I," Hanley said. "It is just as important to any future human launch
system that you might want to build. And of course it's important in terms of
our overall plan for the Constellation program."
SPACE.com will provide full coverage of NASA's Ares I-X
test flight with Staff Writer Clara Moskowitz in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and
Managing Editor Tariq Malik in New York. Click
here for live launch coverage and mission coverage.
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