Ares I-X rolls out

Gee, here we are nearly 10 years into the 21st Century and billions have been spent on a brand new NASA launch architecture. So what do we see emerging in a dramatic nighttime debut at KSC? Surely it must be a fully reusable vehicle that builds on what was learned from the Shuttle, lowers the cost of getting to orbit with vastly reduced operational complexity and fast turnaround between flights, and finally advances the US towards genuine spacefaring capability? Not a chance. It's a pathetic Potemkin missile that fakes a bigger missile that will take another 10 years and tens of billions of additional dollars to develop. The agency, though, will hold AIX a successful missile indeed if it travels 28 miles and unleashes an explosion of positive publicity that blows away the competition.

/-- Ares 1-X Mission Report - Ares 1-X rocket emerges from the VAB - Spaceflight Now
/-- Ares I-X Rocket: NASA Unveils its New Baby: Slender, 327-Foot Rocket is U.S.'s 1st New Craft in 3 Decades; Set for Pivotal Test Launch in 1 Week - CBS News
/-- Under the spotlight: Ares I-X rolls out of VAB for test launch - NASASpaceFlight.com
/-- Ares I-X: Rollout to Pad 39B (photo gallery) - collectSPACE

Posted 10/20/09 | 08:21:25 by TopSpacer | Filed under: NASA Exploration Systems

Comments

Second that...

Posted by Frank Glover at 10/20/09 11:29:39

We can still wish them well. It will be an interesting flight test, though all too expensive...

Posted by Tom D at 10/20/09 19:07:24

And we could just as well wish for hot burning debris raining down on the adjacent launch pad, and the result would still be the same. Wishing doesn't work.

Wishing is for intellectual wimps.

Posted by Top Dog at 10/20/09 23:54:13

I also wish them well. Useful data can no doubt be obtained from this flight even if it isn't the exact configuration of the final Ares-I.

Posted by anon at 10/21/09 02:16:45

Doller per feet of altitude it's easilymost expensive launch vehicle ever actually built, if it launches.

Posted by Jonathon at 10/21/09 10:33:26

Ares 1-X

Lets get this right.

1) 4 segment Shuttle SRB.

2) DUMMY upper stage.

3) Roll Control package.

It's taken 4 years to do this? Everyone at NASA should be ashamed. Little Joe was banged out in 6 months.

Posted by anonymous at 10/21/09 10:40:09

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