Ares I-X booster segments take the rails to launch site

By John Croft

Alliant Techsystems has shipped four solid rocket motor segments from its processing facility in Utah to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, the last remaining major hardware elements needed to build up the first suborbital test vehicle for NASA’s next generation Ares I booster system.

The hardware will arrive in Florida later this month and undergo final processing and preparations before being stacked with the other portions of the Ares 1-X test rocket.

The Ares I-X first stage will use use a four-segment solid rocket motor that delivers 3.3 million pounds of thrust. Since the actual Ares 1 first stage will have five segments, the test vehicle will carry a fifth segment simulator.

The Ares first stage is designed to provide the primary propulsion for the rocket from lift off to stage separation 120s into the flight. The motor segments for the Ares 1-X flight were taken from the existing space shuttle solid rocket booster inventory.