Liftoff...



Today the US tested its first new rocket design since the Space Shuttle, the Aries I-X. I suppose I should say "newish" since the Ares system is based on Shuttle parts, primarily the solid rocket boosters. It is the tallest rocket we've built since the Saturn V took men to the moon.

It isn't clear yet what NASA's priorities are going to be under the Obama administration, but this vehicle would be used to get to the International Space Station (USS Good Money After Bad) and to park objects in low-Earth orbit for retrieval during longer missions (to the Moon, or Mars). The second stage along with the Constellation crew module were just mock-ups for this test.


Posted: Wed - October 28, 2009 at 01:36 PM        

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