This story was updated at 12:50 p.m.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A one-of-a-kind NASA rocket soared into
the Florida sky Wednesday in a brief but critical test flight of a new booster
slated to launch astronauts into space and, eventually, toward the moon.
NASA's Ares I-X booster, an
unmanned prototype of the planned Ares I rocket intended to carry
astronauts after the space shuttle fleet retires, blasted off on an
experimental mission from the seaside Launch Pad 39B here at the Kennedy Space
Center (KSC).
"I can't tell you how proud I am of all of ya," KSC
director Bob Cabana told the launch team after liftoff. "That was just
unbelievable, it was spectacular. I got tears in my eyes."
After several false starts due to bad weather, the rocket
took advantage of a brief break in the clouds to loft at 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530
GMT). Foul weather and a series of unlucky events foiled
its first launch attempt Tuesday. NASA required good visibility for this
first flight of the untried rocket.
"Think about what we just did," said launch
director Ed Mango after the liftoff. "Our first flight test and the only
thing we're waiting on was weather. That says you all did frickin' fantastic,"
he told the team.
The rocket lifted off despite a bout of thunderstorms that
passed over it Tuesday night. About 150 lighting strikes were seen to fall near
the site, with four lightning impacts within about a half mile of the launch
pad. The countdown toward liftoff was delayed Wednesday morning while ground
crews checked out the vehicle to make sure it suffered no lightning damage;
luckily, the tests showed Ares I-X was safe to fly.
"We looked at all the systems that could have been
affected by this and all the data indicates that there was absolutely no real
effect," Ares I-X deputy mission manager Jon Cowart said Wednesday
morning.
The towering white booster rose into the sky toward the
east, peaked at about 28 miles (45 km) altitude, then dropped into the Atlantic
Ocean, with parachutes softening its fall. By all appearances, the launch –
which was aimed at demonstrating the rocket's design - was successful.
Wealth of data
The mission is expected to return a wealth of data -
readings from more than 700 onboard sensors as well as visual evidence from
cameras on the ground and borne by flying aircraft. NASA engineers will pore
over the information to study the rocket's trajectory and performance to help
confirm and shape the design of
Ares I.
"It's a huge amount of data," said Bob Ess, Ares
I-X mission manager. "It's reams and reams of data that will take at best
months to go through and understand."
The teams plan to release periodic reports over the next
three months to share the results of the fact-finding test flight. "We'll
come back and tell the agency and the public what we learned from the
flight," Ess said.
Tuesday's launch plans were stymied by clouds, winds and the
threat of rain. If the rocket travels through high clouds it runs a risk of
triggering "trioboelectrification" - static electricity that could
interfere with sensitive onboard instruments. In addition to weather concerns,
a stuck cover on one of the rocket's probes stalled Tuesday morning, further
delaying the countdown, and a freight boat later strayed into restricted waters
close to the launch pad, thwarting one launch attempt.
The Ares I-X rocket was composed of a real first stage, with
four tuna can-shaped solid-rocket segments and a dummy fifth segment on
top. It also carried a simulated upper stage and crew capsule to mimic
the intended size and mass of a full Ares I booster. At 327 feet (100 meters)
high on the launch pad, it was the
tallest rocket in service today, however brief its two-minute flight
lasted.
The solid-rocket elements were based on, and utilized
hardware from, the solid rocket boosters that help lift space shuttles into
orbit.
After liftoff, the rocket's two stages separated as planned
about two minutes into the flight when an explosive device along their boundary
fired on schedule. The first stage sank under parachutes to be collected by
boats from the sea so that its onboard data could be retrieved. The dummy
second stage was left to sink into the Atlantic Ocean.
Uncertain future
Despite the apparent success of Ares I-X's flight, the
ultimate future of the Ares I rocket is uncertain.
The booster was originally designed to replace the space
shuttles as a vehicle to ferry crews to the International Space Station. But
the station is set to be de-orbited around 2016 and Ares I is not likely to be
ready before 2017, defeating much of its purpose, some experts have said.
Last week, an independent review team appointed by U.S.
President Barack Obama released
a report detailing the status of America's human spaceflight program, and
outlined possible alternate visions for NASA's future.
The president is currently reviewing the report and is
expected to make a decision soon about whether to proceed with the
Constellation program, which includes Ares I, or take the agency in a new
direction. The report suggested that President Obama consider giving up on Ares
I and instead urging private industry to step in and design a low-earth orbit
vehicle for humans. That way, NASA could focus on building a heavy-lift vehicle
to take people to the moon and Mars.
Despite the doubts hanging over the program, and the perhaps
unfortunate timing of the panel's report being released less than a week before
the Ares I-X launch, mission managers say they are focusing on the task at
hand.
"The timing is what it is, but the test is significant
and it's one that we fully back," said Doug Cooke, associate administrator
of NASA's exploration systems.
Mission managers said that even if NASA does not go forward
with Ares I, Tuesday's flight test provided useful data, not just about that
particular rocket, but about the process of designing and building new rockets
in general.
"The data were going to get and the objectives we're
going to get are really germane to a whole class of launch vehicles," Ess
said.
SPACE.com is providing full coverage of NASA's Ares I-X
test flight with Staff Writer Clara Moskowitz in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and
Managing Editor Tariq Malik in New York. Click
here for mission updates.
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