KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL - Four years after development began, NASA's Constellation program took flight today with the successful launch of the Ares I-X test vehicle. The six-minute flight, designed primarily to gather aerodynamic data on the vehicle performance in actual flight for comparison with computer models, comes at a time of uncertainty for the space agency's initiative to return astronauts to the Moon and eventually land on Mars. A presidential panel recommended vast changes to the program which may result in the cancellation of the Ares I crew launch vehicle.
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DOWNLOAD ALL 7 PARTS AND USES WINZIP TO JOIN THEM INTO 1 1.5 GB MP4: DOWNLOAD VIDEO: EXTENDED ARES I-X LAUNCH - 1080i - PART 1 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: EXTENDED ARES I-X LAUNCH - 1080i - PART 2 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: EXTENDED ARES I-X LAUNCH - 1080i - PART 3 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: EXTENDED ARES I-X LAUNCH - 1080i - PART 4 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: EXTENDED ARES I-X LAUNCH - 1080i - PART 5 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: EXTENDED ARES I-X LAUNCH - 1080i - PART 6 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: EXTENDED ARES I-X LAUNCH - 1080i - PART 7 HD VIDEO FOR ALL-ACCESS SUBSCRIBERS: DOWNLOAD VIDEO: ARES I-X LAUNCH - 480 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: ARES I-X LAUNCH - 720p DOWNLOAD VIDEO: ARES I-X LAUNCH - 1080i ARES I-X TEST FLIGHT MISSION ARCHIVE However, doubts about the future were largely forgotten this morning when the 327-foot tall Ares I-X rocketed skyward at 11:30 from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39-B. the rocket performed a perfect fly-away maneuver to steer clear of the launch tower before arcing over the Atlantic Ocean, darting through scattered clouds along the way. Today's mission marked the first time since a Saturn IB launched the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project from the same pad in July 1975 that a rocket other than the space shuttle has blasted off from Launch Complex 39. The Ares I-X test vehicle was also the tallest rocket to fly in the world since the Saturn V, which last flew in 1973 when it orbited the Skylab space laboratory. Appropriately enough, launch occurred one day after the 48th anniversary of the first Saturn I launch, which was also a test of the first stage with ballast in the upper stage. The 177-foot-tall, 12-foot diameter first stage produced 3.3 million pounds of thrust to propel the vehicle from liftoff to stage separation 124 seconds into the flight at an altitude just over 24 miles. The solid rocket booster continued upward another 4 miles before beginning its descent. As planned, the upper stage simulator and mock Orion crew capsule also continued on a ballistic trajectory after separation but made an uncontrolled descent and impact in the Atlantic Ocean and were not recovered. The Ares I-X First Stage is comprised of a four-segment Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) originally produced for the Space Shuttle Program, and newly designed hardware including the frustum, forward skirt extension, forward skirt and a simulator representing the fifth segment that will fly on the Ares I vehicle. The solid rocket motor cases used for Ares I-X have collectively flown on 30 previous shuttle missions and will continue to be reused for the Ares program. In addition to validating computer models of the vehicle, test objectives for the Ares I-X flight included demonstrating vehicle proof of concept, and vital flight performance early in design of the Ares I program. It also demonstrated effective vehicle integration, ground processing and launch operations. At burnout and separation, it appeared initially that the booster might have recontacted the upper stage. Computer modeling predicted that most likely the upper stage would continue coasting nose-first after separation, but the simulator began tumbling end over end at the same initial rate as the booster, giving the visual impression that the two stages might have bumped each other. However, mission managers stated after launch that telemetry showed no indication the segments bumped into each other after separating. Early indications are that the vehicle performed flawlessly during flight. The last objective of the mission was to test the new parachute recovery system that has been designed specifically for Ares I. Sporting three 150-foot diameter parachutes, compared to the shuttle solid rocket booster's two 136-foot chutes, The Ares I-X first stage was supposed to deploy the parachutes in a two step fashion for a jarring, but relatively gentle water landing in the ocean about 6 minutes after launch. At 130,000 feet, the first stage parachutes should have deployed, enabling the spent booster to slow its descent prior to deploying the main parachutes at 15,00 feet and splashing down into the ocean where it will be recovered for reuse. Airborne aircraft and the two recovery ships, Liberty Star and Freedom Star, were in position to view the stage's descent but there was no word initially as to whether or not they were able to see the rocket. However, a video camera mounted on the rocket looking upward showed at least one drogue or main chute opening before the video signal was lost. "Because we have a booster in the water, it must have worked pretty well," Ares I-X mission manager Bob Ess said. For those who worked for three years designing, building and flying the "tall and skinny" rocket, today's launch provided an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and vindication of a design that has been beleaguered by accusations, largely unfounded, that it could break in half during launch, that vibrations could shake the upper stage and Orion to pieces, that its inherent tendency to roll could cause it to spiral out of control and that, at liftoff, breezes could force it to slam into the side of the launch tower. None of those doom-and-gloom scenarios came to pass and an early look at telemetry from the flight indicates that those concerns may be mostly overblown, something which the Ares I-X team knew all along. After the flight, launch team members and mission managers could be viewed on television excitedly pumping fists in the air, hugging, cheering and even crying in a rarely seen, well-earned, display of emotion. "You all did frickin' fantastic," Ares I-X Launch Director Ed Mango, told the team in Young-Crippen Firing Room 1 of the Launch Control Center minutes after the flight was over. Afterward, KSC Director Bob Cabana brought out a pair of scissors and ceremoniously snipped Mango's tie in half, a tradition given to each new launch director on their first mission. "When you consider three years ago this was a blank piece of paper," said Cabana, :It shows what we can do when we have a common goal, a common vision, and we all work together as one team." "The success of this test launch helps to pave the way for future space exploration," said Brig. Gen. Edward L. Bolton, Jr., 45th Space Wing commander. "We're very pleased to continue supporting NASA and its partners as we write the next chapter in human space flight here on the Eastern Range." "This flight test is the culmination of four years of progress and is the critical first step to launching America beyond low earth orbit, signifying the beginning of a new era for the American space program," said Mike Kahn, Space Systems executive vice president for solid rocket booster manufacturer ATK. "The Ares I architecture provides unmatched crew safety and performance for payload capacity, all while utilizing existing infrastructure." During a postlaunch press conference, Constellation program mangers Jeff Hanley addressed the issue of naysayers and the controversy surrounding the Ares I project. "Vindication really does not describe it well," Hanley said. "It's a sense of validation that the course that we had laid out is executable. An early demonstration like this puts aside any doubts in our minds, if we had them, about the flyability of this design. We have a design that will do the country service if it is put into service. " Bob Ess put any lingering doubt about the Ares I concept and Ares I-X specifically, to rest when he told reporters, "The vehicle flew even better than we expected. We completely met our success criteria, and we actually blew them away." "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." "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." Mother Nature Again Proves Formidable Foe Pulling off today's launch proved to be more of a challenge in some ways than anyone expected. Liftoff was originally scheduled for yesterday, but was scrubbed after the launch team lost a four-hour battle with the weather, and again today, liftoff was three and a half hours late because of weather conditions. Along the way, team members, the media and public watching anxiously learned a new word: "triboelectrification". This is a phenomena where a rocket flying through cold, high-altitude clouds can generate a field of static electricity around it, potentially disrupting communications with the ground. The phenomena is comparable to rubbing a balloon against wool to generate static. During the countdown, astronauts Steve Lindsey and Chris Ferguson flew a T-38 high over the launch site monitoring the passage of clouds through the rocket's anticipated flight path. Repeatedly, the weather was "go" then "no-go" as the clouds drifted overhead. T-0 was reset on several occasions as the team essentially tried to time liftoff to shoot the rocket through holes in the clouds that lasted just minutes long. Eventually time ran out in the four-hour launch window and the mission was scrubbed for a day. Today, the launch team, especially launch weather officer Kathy Winters, struggled to find a hole in the clouds. Finally, after T-0 had been moved forward and back several times, an opening appeared just long enough to pick up the count from its built-in hold at T-4 minutes and launch Ares I-X at 11:30 a.m. EDT. Ares project managers said future vehicles (as all existing rockets) will be designed so they don't have to fight triboelectrication but that Ares I-X, being a low-budget almost "crash" program, didn't address the issue. However, Bob Ess pointed out that, in hindsight, triboelectrification probably wasn't going to affect the rocket anyway and they could have performed the analysis and submit proof to the 45th Space Wing which manages the launch range and has overall responsibility to keep the public safe in the event of a launch mishap. Ess chalked it up to being one of the lessons learned from the flight, which was one of the primary purposes of the Ares I-X test launch. Constellation's Future Remains In Doubt How today's success will affect the uncertain future of the Constellation program remains to be seen. Just days ago a presidentially-appointed review panel chaired by Norman Augustine, the widely respected form chairman of Lockheed-Martin, released its final report that gave dire predictions for NASA's exploration ambitions. In its report, the committee stated flat out that Constellation is an unsustainable program from a budgetary point of view and that NASA will need an increase in annual funding of $3 billion by 2014 if it hopes to achieve any meaningful human exploration beyond Low Earth Orbit. The report lays out various options, most of which involve canceling the Ares I launch vehicle in favor of commercial crew transport to the International Space Station. Insiders in the Obama Administration quietly state that Ares I is, at this point, all but dead. However, today's launch, combined with this summer's first test of the 5-segment solid rocket motor as well as ongoing progress with the Ares I and Orion designs, including Orion completing its preliminary design review in August, may provide some encouragement to keep the project going. Perhaps most importantly, the doom and gloom predictions are increasingly appearing to be, in reality, of minimal or even no concern at all. The simple fact that the slogan "the stick won't work" is beginning to appear to be wholly unfounded means, at the very least, even if Ares I is cancelled, it won't be because of any design flaws. It would, however, be the most bittersweet of outcomes for NASA if Ares I is cancelled just as its design concept has proven itself. (The Spacearium / SpaceflightNews.net)
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