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NASA Successfully Launches Ares 1-X

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A one-of-a-kind NASA rocket soared into the Florida sky Oct. 28 in a brief but critical test flight of a new booster slated to launch astronauts into space and, eventually, toward the Moon.

NASA's Ares 1-X booster, an unmanned prototype of the planned Ares 1 rocket intended to carry astronauts after the space shuttle fleet retires, blasted off on an experimental mission from the seaside Launch Pad 39B here at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

"I can't tell you how proud I am of all of ya," KSC director Bob Cabana told the launch team after liftoff. "That was just unbelievable, it was spectacular. I got tears in my eyes."

After several false starts due to bad weather, the rocket took advantage of a brief break in the clouds to loft at 11:30 a.m. EDT. Foul weather and a series of unlucky events foiled its first launch attempt the day before. NASA required good visibility for this first flight of the untried rocket.

"Think about what we just did," said launch director Ed Mango after the liftoff.

"Our first flight test and the only thing we're waiting on was weather. That says you all did frickin' fantastic," he told the team.

The rocket lifted off despite a bout of thunderstorms that passed over it the night before. About 150 lighting strikes were seen to fall near the site, with four lightning impacts within about a kilometer of the launch pad. The countdown toward liftoff was delayed Wednesday morning while ground crews checked out the vehicle to make sure it suffered no lightning damage; luckily, the tests showed Ares I-X was safe to fly.

"We looked at all the systems that could have been affected by this and all the data indicates that there was absolutely no real effect," Ares 1-X deputy mission manager Jon Cowart said.

The towering white booster rose into the sky toward the east, peaked at about 45 kilometers altitude, then dropped into the Atlantic Ocean, with parachutes softening its fall. By all appearances, the launch – which was aimed at demonstrating the rocket's design -- was successful.

Read the full article at SpaceNews.com

29 Oct 2009 - 12:34 by soullezz

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