Ares I-X booster on its descent into the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: NASA

In late October NASA conducted the first test flight of its next-generation rocket, Ares. In a press conference at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston this afternoon, project managers and engineers reported their preliminary findings.

The flight was successful in many ways, said Bob Ess, project manager of Ares I-X. For instance, it demonstrated the viability of the guidance, navigation and control systems. "The algorithms were perfect and performed flawlessly; a key result for validating our [predictive] models."

Marshall Smith, manager of systems engineering and integration for the rocket, added that Ares I-X, the tallest rocket ever to be flown, shows that "[NASA] can push forward with the design of Ares I."

The rocket's flight lasted--from liftoff to splash down--approximately six minutes, enough time for engineers to gather data on the performance of the rocket's avionic systems, accelerations and vibrations experienced, roll torque and thrust oscillation, as well as the separation of its stages.

One key problem during the flight was the malfunction of the parachutes designed to carry the rockets solid rocket booster back to earth. At an altitude of 45 kilometers the rocket's two stages separated. The first stage, composed of four solid rocket boosters and a dummy fifth segment, were dropped into the Atlantic Ocean via three large parachutes. (The mock second stage broke apart and was not recovered.) But the main parachute failed and a second parachute partially failed causing the booster to splash down hard into the ocean, leaving a nice dent in its side.

The main parachute failed at inflation, said Smith. The parachutes are supposed to open in three stages, and at each stage there is a cable that keeps the chutes from opening too far. The engineers believe that one of the cables opened too far putting too much force on the lines causing them to shear. The engineers are still investigating the partial failure of the second chute. They plan to give two more Ares I-X performance reports--one in January and the other late February 2010.

The engineers now want to do additional tests flights in 2012 or 2013. "Each time we can make it more like Ares I, so the next [test rocket] will have a full five segment solid rocket booster," said Jon Cowart, deputy project manager. But any future test flights will be contingent on the Obama administration's decision on the future of human spaceflight.

A camera on the rocket captures the second stage after separation from the first stage. Credit: NASA

The separation connectors that failed during descent. Credit: NASA

A view looking up at the three parachutes--the main chute failed, and a second partially failed--during descent. Credit: NASA

The launch of NASA's new rocket, Ares I-X, on October 28 was the first test flight of a new launch vehicle since the Apollo missions. The flight was spectacular and historic, but the famous Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin says it was little more than a half-a-billion dollar political show.

In an editorial in The Huffington Post, Aldrin calls the rocket for "fake", because the Ares I-X was a prototype rocket built to look like the rocket designed to replace the aging space shuttles and take humans to the moon and beyond, Ares I. For example, its four-segment solid rocket boosters were taken from the space shuttle and the fifth segment was a mock, made of steel cylinders. The rocket's upper stage was also a mock-up (the final will include the J-2X engine and Orion crew capsule), but it used real parachutes for recovery of the boosters. The Ares I-X flight objectives were to gather data during the first two minutes of ascent, when the rocket is most likely to fail, to help engineers better design and development the Ares I.

Aldrin writes that technical problems have "haunted the Ares like leftovers from Halloween," and says that, "to stave off critics, three years ago the Project Constellation managers conceived of the 1-X flight to supposedly show some progress."

The concept of the Ares I-X flight, however, mirrors the development of the Saturn family of rockets that carried the astronauts, Aldrin included, to the moon. During the development of Saturn IB, for example, many test flights were conducted when different segments and parts of the rocket were engineered.

NASA's current plan is to use two rockets to return humans to the moon--Ares I for crew and Ares V as a heavy lifter, carrying things like a lunar habitat. Aldrin notes that it took just one rocket during the Apollo missions, and says that two rockets in development means "two price tags. Two ways for failure to occur. Or delays to develop."

Worse yet, neither rocket alone can accomplish a deep space mission. And deep space, such as Mars is, as our friends in the recent Augustine report stated, our destination in space . . . Ares 1 is too small, barely able to lift the crew space capsule. And Ares V is too weak to boost all of the elements together.

What do we need? One rocket for all our deep space missions. Save the taxpayer's money by canceling the Ares 1 and V. And go "back to the future" in designing the big beast.

Fortunately, Aldrin has a plan: use the commercial sector for transportation to the space station--which would save money--and start building a heavy lifter "worthy of Saturn V's successor." He says the moon should be an international affair, opening up the design competition outside of just NASA, and our efforts should be on Mars.

If we bypass a foolish Moon race . . . we will have time to refine the super booster to make sure it is compatible with our deep space goals, like missions flying by comets or asteroids -- or to the moons of Mars. Such a rocket would be ready when the time comes to colonize Mars. No more false starts and dead end rockets.

One thing the Augustine Panel's final report pointed out is that we should be building infrastructure in space, such as refueling technology, so that rockets that are smaller and cheaper could be used for missions that would otherwise be outside their weight class and larger rockets would have their capabilities enhanced.

The decision is still out on what the next U.S. rocket for space travel will be, but whatever it is (and Aldrin confesses he has his own design), he says, "heavy lifting doesn't have to be heavy spending, if we do the right job."

Ares I-X lift off. Credit: NASA

After a drama-filled wait, NASA's new rocket finally took to the sky this morning. The rocket, called Ares I-X, launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, its mission to gather critical data for the agency's next line of moon-bound rockets.

The event marked the first time that a new vehicle has launched from the complex in 30 years and the first test flight since the Apollo missions. The historic flight was spectacular, despite the vehicles uncertain future. A recent report from an independent committee reviewing NASA's future plans for human exploration did not favor the development of Ares I.

Ares I-X is a prototype rocket composed of real and simulated systems and includes over 700 onboard sensors designed to gather data on vibrations, temperatures, acoustics, loads, pressure, and more.

The maiden flight lasted a mere two minutes, during which time the rocket traveled through the toughest parts of the atmosphere where a launch vehicle is most vulnerable to failures. At an altitude of 45 kilometers the rocket's two stages separated. The first stage, composed of four solid rocket boosters and a dummy fifth, will be recovered-- these boosters used a set of large parachutes to drop into the Atlantic Ocean. The mock second stage broke apart and will not be recovered.

Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager told Space.com that the test flight gathered huge amounts of data. "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," Ess said.

Credit: NASA