"Rogue" NASA Administrator Angling To Save Ares I Rocket Program From Budget Axe

The Ares I-X Rollout NASA's prototype heavy-lift rocket, the Ares I-X, on the launchpad in October 2009.

From Popular Science:

In a speech to NASA employees and the nation on April 15, President Obama unveiled a vision for U.S. space exploration that didn't include Constellation or development of its Ares I rocket. The next day, Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley issued his response to Obama: Not so fast.

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NASA Budget: Constellation Officially Canned, But The Deep-Space Future Is Bright

The Ares I-X The Constellation Program rockets will fly no more, but "aggressive" research into heavy-lift rockets should take us closer to manned missions in deep space. NASA

From Popular Science:

Rumors circulated last week, but now it’s official: NASA won’t be sending manned missions back to the moon any time soon. But in what may seem like a gutting of NASA moon- and Mars-based ambitions there is a silver lining: a $6 billion investment in helping private industry bring their space launch vehicles up to human-rated capacity and a smattering of modest robotic precursor missions to the moon, Mars, Martian moons or the Lagrange points that should set the stage for later manned missions far beyond low-earth orbit.

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Ares I Is 'Safest Choice' To Replace Shuttle

The future of NASA's Ares I rocket has been up in the air (Illustration: NASA/MSFC)

From New Scientist:

It has been a whipping boy for its critics, but NASA's Ares I rocket has received a rare boost.

Despite budget and technical concerns, NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) believes Ares I is the best bet for flying astronauts to the International Space Station after the space shuttle retires, because it has been designed from the outset with the safety of its crew in mind.

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Ares' Continued Technical Problems And Money Troubles: Guest Analysis

From Popular Mechanics:

Space analyst Rand Simberg argues here that last week's test flight of the Ares I-X rocket, NASA's planned, vaunted crew-launch system, did little to stem the controversy over the program. The space agency claims that the flight was a success, providing data needed to retire some of the risk in the development of the eventual booster. But the flight was hardly flawless, Simberg says, and may have uncovered a previously unknown (or, at any rate, undiscussed) risk. Even with all of its technical issues—thrust oscillation, reduced performance margin, a gantry collision risk and now a risk during stage separation—the real problem of the program, Simberg argues, remains how much it will cost.

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Ares I-X: An Illustrated History

Going Up: NASA/Sandra Joseph and Kevin O'Connell)

From Popular Science:

I'm not quite ready to stop thinking about NASA's Ares I-X rocket test earlier this week--and neither is Boston.com's Big Picture blog, where a great collection of images today goes from the rocket's construction to its first launch.

We go from the shrink-wrapped delivery of its individual parts to its birth in the hangars Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Buidling, High Bay 4. From its engine tests in the Utah desert to its first real launch this past Wednesday, complete with a nice shot of its "shock egg" vapor plume.

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Rooting for NASA's Ares I Rockets: Analysis

From Popular Mechanics:

A week of spaceflight tests, large and small, reminds us why NASA’s much maligned launch vehicle is important. If it fails, we lose the moon.

This week, all eyes were on NASA as it conducted the first flight of the Ares I, the first launch vehicle the agency designed since the Space Shuttle. October also witnessed progress in other space launches, some of which are seen as possible replacements for the towering NASA rocket. But a comparison of the milestones met in the last two weeks shows why NASA’s Constellation program remains important, and is exceedingly difficult to replace.

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The Ares Lift-Off: Learning From Space Shuttle Mistakes

From Time Magazine:

With the future of the space agency up in the air, NASA can certainly use the good P.R. that will flow from Wednesday's picture perfect test launch of its Ares I-X prototype rocket which is being designed to replace the aging Space Shuttle and ignite a new era in human space exploration. Mission managers took quick advantage of changing weather conditions to blast the rocket through a small hole in upper level clouds passing briefly over Launch Pad 39B.

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Liftoff For NASA's Ares I-X

Ares Test 1

From Popular Science:

Ares I-X roared off its launch pad at 11:30 EST at Cape Canaveral. This marks success for NASA's second launch attempt to get the Ares I-X rocket off the ground after weather delayed the launch on Tuesday.

Update 9:58 EST: NASA now aims for launch around 11 EST. Surveillance aircraft report that weather should be "acceptable" at that time, and NASA pegs the chance of weather interference at just 20 percent.

Update 10:43 EST: Engineering teams are all reporting a "go" for launch, and the launch director reports no constraints to launch. Countdown is set to pick up at 10:56 EST.

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Nasa's Ares 1-X Rocket Launch Postponed Due To Bad Weather

Ares 1-X at the launchpad in Florida. The rocket's launch has been delayed by 24 hours
Photo: NASA

From The Telegraph:

The launch of Nasa’s latest rocket, the Ares 1-X, has been postponed for 24 hours due to bad weather.

Nasa announced the news on its website and on Twitter, saying: “Ares I-X has scrubbed for today due to bad weather. :-( More details soon about next attempt.”

The launch was scheduled for between midday and 4pm GMT, but has been delayed by 24 hours, according to another Twitter post saying: “Ares I-X flight test now targeted for tomorrow Oct. 28 at 8 a.m. EDT/noon GMT. 4hr launch window. Weather 60% go”.

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NASA’s Ares 1-X Rocket Is Looking Good For Tuesday Launch

NASA: Next generation. NASA's slender white Ares 1-X towers some 327 feet above its launch pad, with the space shuttle Atlantis in the distance being prepared for a November launch. When (or if) completed, the Ares 1 and its Orion crew capsule will become NASA's newest taxi to low-Earth orbit. (NASA)

From Christian Science Monitor:

NASA’s Ares 1-X rocket is standing tall on the pad, waiting for what NASA managers hope will be its 2 minutes of fame.

That’s about how long Ares 1-X will remain in the sky during its up-and-down test flight, currently scheduled for Oct. 27. The launch is set for 8 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, so grab a cup of your favorite hot beverage, pull up a chair, and see what happens to the first new rocket NASA’s order up in nearly 30 years.

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NASA Ares Rocket Development To Take Too Long

From Future Pundit:

An article in New Scientist about the NASA Ares rocket program reports that a White House advisory panel chaired by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine recommends against further development of the Ares rocket because it will take too long to develop.

The rocket is set to make its first test flight on 27 October. But the committee believes the rocket will not be ready to loft crew to orbit until 2017, two years after the ISS is scheduled to be abandoned and hurled into the Pacific Ocean, Augustine said. Extending use of the space station to 2020 would not make much difference, since this would eat up funds available for Ares I and delay its first flight to 2018 or 2019, added committee member Edward Crawley of MIT.

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NASA Completes First Test Rocket to Replace Shuttle

From Yahoo News/Space:

NASA has finished building the first of its new Ares I rockets slated to replace the aging space shuttle fleet and return astronauts to the moon - a gleaming white booster due to blast off this fall.

The Ares I-X rocket is the inaugural booster in NASA's first new rocket line for crew transport in more than 25 years. It is scheduled to launch Oct. 31 on a demonstration flight to prove the viability of the Ares I rocket to haul NASA's new astronaut-carrying Orion spacecraft into orbit.

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