NASA's Ares I-X Rocket Completes Successful Flight Test
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's Ares I-X test rocket lifted off at
11:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
for a two-minute powered flight. The test flight lasted about six
minutes from its launch from the newly-modified Launch Complex 39B
until splash down of the rocket's booster stage nearly 150 miles down
range.
"This is a huge step forward for NASA's exploration goals," said Doug
Cooke, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission
Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Ares I-X provides
NASA with an enormous amount of data that will be used to improve the
design and safety of the next generation of American spaceflight
vehicles -- vehicles that could again take humans beyond low Earth
orbit."
The 327-foot tall Ares I-X test vehicle produced 2.6 million pounds of
thrust to accelerate the rocket to nearly 3 g's and Mach 4.76, just
shy of hypersonic speed. It capped its easterly flight at a
sub-orbital altitude of 150,000 feet after the separation of its
first stage, a four-segment solid rocket booster.
Parachutes deployed for recovery of the booster and the solid rocket
motor will be recovered at sea for later inspection. The simulated
upper stage, Orion crew module, and launch abort system will not be
recovered.
"The most valuable learning is through experience and observation,"
said Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager. "Tests such as this -- from
paper to flight -- are vital in gaining a deeper understanding of the
vehicle, from design to development."
Wednesday's flight offered an early opportunity to test and prove
hardware, facilities, and ground operations - important data for
future space vehicles. During the flight, a range of performance data
was relayed to the ground and also stored in the onboard flight data
recorder. The 700 sensors mounted on the vehicle provide flight test
engineering data to correlate with computer models and analysis. The
rocket's sensors gathered information in several areas, including
assembly and launch operations, separation of the vehicle's first and
second stages, controllability and aerodynamics, the re-entry and
recovery of the first stage and new vehicle design techniques.
The Ares I-X efforts are led by the Ares I-X mission management office
of the Constellation Program, based at NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston, and NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in
Washington. NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland designed and
built the vehicle's upper stage mass simulator. NASA's Langley
Research Center in Hampton, Va., provided aerodynamic
characterization, flight test vehicle integration and the crew
module/launch abort system mass simulator. NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., with contractor support, provided
management for the development of Ares I-X avionics, roll control,
and first stage systems. The Kennedy Space Center provided operations
and associated ground activities and launch operations.
Contractors for Ares I-X include Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, of Salt
Lake City for the first stage solid rocket booster and Teledyne Brown
Engineering of Huntsville for the roll control system. Jacobs
Engineering of Tullahoma, Tenn., supported by Lockheed Martin of
Denver, provided the avionics systems. United Space Alliance of
Houston and ATK Launch Systems support the ground systems and launch
operations.
For information about Ares I-X, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/aresIX
