Extra Ares Flight-Test Possible

Managers at NASA are pulling together options for spending the roughly $400 million in extra funds that have become available for human exploration under the economic stimulus package, and have not ruled out an extra flight-test to hasten development of the Ares I crew launch vehicle.

Also on the table is advancing development work on Ares I and the Orion crew exploration vehicle that has slipped beyond fiscal 2010. That would reduce risk and increase efficiency by avoiding potential delays arising from parallel development of components that must work together, according to Doug Cooke, associate administrator for exploration systems.

"We have had to push some work out of years 2009 and '10 because of the restricted budget that we have until [the] shuttle is retired, so this actually helps bring some work back into '09 and '10 that will help us develop in a more serial fashion than we otherwise would have been able to do," Cooke said Feb. 25 in a status briefing in Washington on early planning for lunar surface operations.

Cooke said his mission directorate was still getting details on just how much money will be available, and when, from the $1 billion NASA received in the final $787 billion stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed Feb. 16. Early agency calculations had the overall NASA add-on saving or preserving about 7,000 jobs, but the details are still being worked under a 60-day deadline.

While developing the flight vehicles that will follow the retiring space shuttle fleet in a more serial fashion would avoid time-consuming rework that might be necessary, the agency also has identified a way to hasten development of the flight systems with an extra flight-test of prototype hardware.

Dubbed Ares I-X prime, the follow-on to the Ares I-X test currently set this summer would flight-test the five-segment version of the four-segment solid-fuel shuttle booster that will be the first stage of the Ares I and give the solid-fuel launch abort system a test at high altitude. That could help close the anticipated "gap" between the planned shuttle retirement at the end of 2010 and the first flight of Ares I/Orion in 2015 by as much as a year.

"That certainly is within the realm of possibility," Cooke said of using the stimulus money to fund the extra flight-test.

Jeff Hanley, manager of the Constellation Program that is developing all of NASA's new human-exploration vehicles, is still working on options for using the extra money, and his results haven't been "vetted" yet, according to Cooke.

"I'll have no trouble finding things to usefully apply additional dollars for," Hanley told the lunar conference.

Artist's concept of Ares I launch: NASA