NASA will literally roll out the new Ares I-X rocket on October 19. It will roll from the Vehicle Assembly Building to launch pad 39B on that date, and prep for an October 27 launch. The launch window is from 08:00 – 12:00 EDT (12:00 – 16:00 UTC).
That’s a tad early for me to wake up to live tweet it (I’m two hours earlier) but if the launch holds off a couple of hours I’ll see what I can do. Remember too it’ll be covered on NASA TV.
The Ares I-X is not NASA’s final rocket assembly that will take humans back into space in the post-Shuttle era; it’s a test vehicle to check out some of the hardware and procedures that will be used in the full-up Ares I rocket. And NASA plans on building the larger and more powerful Ares V, which is what will return us to the Moon, assuming all goes according to the current plan.
October 12th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Hmmm, they’re getting their development together pretty darn fast. Seems it was just yesterday Dubya wanted to go to Mars. Now we’re looking at a new vehicle all ready to roll out on the pad(experimental, admittedly). Way to go NASA.
GAry 7
October 12th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Wow, they are actually going to meet this milestone! Good on NASA! I was worried about more slips to the schedule. Here’s looking at you NASA!
October 12th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Hey, Phil, you’re an astronomer. You’re supposed to be ready and able to get up in the middle of the night. So, I think you should tweet the launch so I can read all about it in the morning when I get up at around 10.
October 12th, 2009 at 9:32 am
How exactly does the Ares I-X launch stack differ from the full Ares I configuration? Does it have dummy stages or something?
EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares_I-X
Dummy stages.
October 12th, 2009 at 9:33 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares_I-X
October 12th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I hope they ask the sky’s permission before punching a hole in it.
October 12th, 2009 at 9:50 am
I actually hope it delays for 1 day, so I can say the post-shuttle era started on my birthday!
October 12th, 2009 at 11:10 am
[...] De Ares I-XAgenda’s allemaal vrijmaken! Volgende week maandag, 19 oktober 2009 volgens onze tijdrekening, rolt de Ares I-X uit het Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), op weg naar lanceerplatform 39B van Kennedy Space Center. Vervolgens zal deze gloednieuwe raket, testmodel van de beoogd opvolger van de Space Shuttle, zich klaarmaken om op 27 oktober ergens tussen 14.00 en 18.00 uur Nederlandse tijd worden gelanceerd. Eerder heb je op dit astropodium al kunnen zien hoe de motor van de Ares I-X werd getest én hoe alle onderdelen van de raket als ware het een Meccano bouwdoos in de VAB in elkaar werd geflanst. Eh… nog even over dat tussenzinnetje “testmodel van de beoogd opvolger van de Space Shuttle”, dat roept vast vragen op bij luisteraars eh.. lezeraars. Yep, de Ares I-X is slechts een testraket. Al dit soort proeven zijn bedoeld om uiteindelijk zowel de Ares I op te leveren als de krachtiger variant daarvan, de Ares V. Een lange weg nog te gaan dus voor het Constellation Programma van de NASA, waar het allemaal toe behoort. Van de foto hierboven, waarop je de Ares I-X nog in de steigers in de VAB ziet, is hier (3,4 Mb) een grote versie te bewonderen. Bron: Bad Astronomy. [...]
October 12th, 2009 at 11:33 am
6 AM is TOO early? You have got to be kidding.
October 12th, 2009 at 11:37 am
OT:
i took my Galileoscope up to the BWCA last weekend and assembled it. the nearest town is 40 miles away (Grand Marais, MN. population 1500) so the sky was wonderful. i saw the milky way easily. anyway, i pointed it at the bright object in the middle of the south sky about midnight central time. i assumed it was jupiter. i think i saw some pinpoints of light in a line around it. it was hard, cause i didn’t have a tripod and the field kept jiggling. but i think i just saw the moons of jupiter for the first time!
October 12th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
For moon lovers everywhere, NASA is chipping away at your great love.
http://www.newsy.com/videos/nasa_smashes_space_probe_into_moon
October 12th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Bah! More capsule based spacecraft! When we gonna get a real spaceship like….er….the shuttle (only newer and better). Technology takes a giant leap backwards.
October 12th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Waste of money, if you ask me. This version of Ares stack have little commonality with planned final version. Anyway, it is very probable that Ares will be axed. Maybe you don’t know, but Ares have really, really BIG troubles. Delays, slips, mountains of technical problems, balooning budget…
Maybe it will be for better if Ares 1-X will put unplanned firework or corkscrew show. At least it would be killed fast and make way for something more sane – something that actually take us to Moon, not just create perpetual jobs and votes for local politicians… *cough* Nelson And Shelby Agency *cough*.
October 12th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
MaDeR,
I think the train of thought is that given the amount of money that has already gone into Aries, it would be well worth it to launch 1-X and get performance and engineering data on this type of launch configuration.
October 12th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
@Rob
Stick the Galileoscope on a tripod. You will see some faint banding around Jupiter itself as well as seeing the four big moons. I’ve had some good views right in the middle of a big city – Sydney – even with mucho light pollution. Can’t wait to take the thing out into the bush.
October 12th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
“Bah! More capsule based spacecraft! When we gonna get a real spaceship like….er….the shuttle (only newer and better). Technology takes a giant leap backwards.”
I can only assume that people that write this have no perspective on just how good Apollo was.
The shuttle is confinded to LEO. It’s wings are deadweight until the end of the mission.
We could’ve done great things with the Saturns had they not been canceled.
Now, to the Ares.
For NASA’s sake, I hope it works.
But personally, I feel a disaster is in the works.
And if so, then either Direct 3.0 or the side-mount launcher ought to be our next near term hope.
October 13th, 2009 at 12:48 am
@Shane,
The Galileoscope works fine in Sydney? Awesome! I might get one – I held off because the light pollution in my suburb (near Chatswood) is appalling.
October 13th, 2009 at 12:58 am
@Naomi
I’m right in town, Redfern, and it is fine for Jupiter. When Jupiter is on the other side of the building it is even awesome through a dirty window. I’m yet to drag it to the local park to have a look at the Magellanic Clouds or the Omega Centauri cluster (wrong part of the sky for my puny balcony and bedroom window). I’m hoping to go bush to check those out too.
Almost forgot, the moon is awesome viewing too.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:02 am
I just noticed my name has been linking to the ABC’s QandA. Oops. Fixed now.
October 13th, 2009 at 8:20 am
@shane
i checked out the moon too. it was *awesome*. gotta check out M31 or andromdeda or something galaxy sized too. but i gotta look up what is visible from the northern hemisphere. i suppose the light gathering power of the Galileoscope isn’t enough to see the ring nebula?
October 13th, 2009 at 9:21 am
[...] Discover Magazine reports that NASA will unveil the replacement for the Space Shuttle’s delivery system, the Ares rocket, on October 19. A test launch is scheduled for October 27. [...]
October 13th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
[...] here to read the rest: NASA rolls out the new Ares on October 19 Tags: nasa, rocket-on-october, roll-out, [...]
October 13th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Awsome news! I can’t wait to see it fly. To quote Al Shepherd :
“Let’s light this candle!”
Oct. 27th launch day you say?
@ 16. Grand Lunar Says:
I can only assume that people that write this :
“Bah! More capsule based spacecraft! When we gonna get a real spaceship like….er….the shuttle (only newer and better). Technology takes a giant leap backwards.”
have no perspective on just how good Apollo was.
Exactly. The Apollo-Saturn was the best most capable human spacecraft-rocket system Humanity has yet invented. I couldn’t agree more there.
The shuttle is confined to LEO. It’s wings are deadweight until the end of the mission. We could’ve done great things with the Saturns had they not been canceled.
True. But you have to admit the orbiters could do things other rockets couldn’t (eg. fly more than once) and had their advantages.
Astronomers esp. and science-lovers generally, should never forget that the shuttles made the Hubble Space Telescope possible – and that’s just for starters. They’ve also enabled more people to travel in space than any other spacecraft. The shuttles have their limitations, yes, but are still amazing machines and I think unfairly denigrated and mocked. They haven’t quite lived up to expectations but what they have done is just staggering so let’s not be too ungrateful, please!
Now, to the Ares. For NASA’s sake, I hope it works.
But personally, I feel a disaster is in the works.
And if so, then either Direct 3.0 or the side-mount launcher ought to be our next near term hope.
Well, its good to know there’s a plan B but I hope it won’t be needed and that all goes well with the new rockets.
I, for one, do not feel a sense of impending disaster -at least not where Ares or NASA generally is concerned.
October 19th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
[...] was scheduled to roll the new Ares I-X rocket out of the Vehicle Assembly Building early Monday, but have delayed [...]