Canon / Scott Andrews

FINALLY! After a day’s worth of delays due to weather concerns and some Joe Schmoe errantly steering his cargo ship into restricted waters off the coast of Kennedy Space Center (KSC) yesterday, the Ares I-X rocket finally launched on its much-anticipated test flight this morning. And its flight sure was triboelectrifying! If you don’t know what that word means, look it up. Just don’t ask anyone who oversaw the test at KSC’s Launch Control today what it means... They’ll probably smack you upside the head in a sec.


NASA / Jack Pfaller


NASA / Jim Grossmann


Canon / Scott Andrews

Here’s the video of the launch:

NASA / Kim Shiflett

TODAY’S THE DAY... Bad weather might thwart this morning’s launch attempt (at 5 AM, Pacific Daylight Time) of NASA's Ares I-X rocket, but oh well. Just thought I’d share more awesome photos of the test vehicle at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B in Florida...


NASA / Jack Pfaller


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett

NASA / Kim Shiflett

Ready For Launch...

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NASA GIVES 'GO' FOR THE ARES I-X TEST ROCKET LAUNCH ON OCT. 27 (Press Release)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA has completed a review of the Ares I-X development rocket's readiness for its flight test and selected Tuesday, Oct. 27, as the official launch date. Liftoff is scheduled for 8 a.m. EDT from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Ares I-X launch date was announced after a flight test readiness review at Kennedy. During the meeting, senior NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the test and determined the rocket, support systems and procedures are ready for launch.

"I am proud of the work this team has done to ready this test rocket for launch," said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. "This is the first time in more than 30 years that NASA has built a vehicle in a new configuration so this has been a valuable learning experience.

"This test will yield important data to support the nation's next steps in exploration. There is no substitute for hard data - flight testing clarifies the distinction between imagined outcomes and real flight experience."

The 28-mile high, two-minute flight of the Ares I-X, an uncrewed development rocket, will provide NASA with an opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations, while gathering critical data for the Ares I rocket and future launch vehicles.

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NASA / Kim Shiflett

NASA / Kim Shiflett

ARES I-X Update...

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NASA'S ARES I-X ROCKET ARRIVES AT LAUNCH PAD IN FLORIDA (Press Release)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - For the first time in more than a quarter century, a new vehicle is sitting at Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Ares I-X flight test vehicle arrived at the pad atop of a giant crawler-transporter at approximately 7:45 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

The crawler-transporter left Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at 1:39 a.m., traveling less than 1 mph during the 4.2-mile journey. The rocket was secured on the launch pad at 9:17 a.m.

The vehicle is scheduled to launch at 8 a.m. on Oct. 27. This test flight of the Ares I-X rocket will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, models, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I launch vehicle.

The Ares I rocket is being designed to carry astronauts to space in the Orion crew exploration vehicle. The Ares I-X test flight also will allow NASA to gather critical data during ascent of the vehicle's integrated stack, which includes the Ares I with a simulated upper stage, Orion and launch abort system. Data collected from more than 700 sensors throughout the rocket will begin to confirm the vehicle as a whole is safe and stable in flight before astronauts begin traveling into orbit.

"With the arrival of Ares I-X at the pad, this milestone demonstrates NASA's world-class ability to conceptually design, build and process a new launch vehicle in just under four years," said Bob Ess, mission manager for Ares I-X at Kennedy. "Nearly 2,000 NASA and contractor employees located throughout the United States worked together in an unprecedented fashion, resulting in the new vehicle ready for flight."

During the week before launch, technicians at the pad will perform a variety of electrical and mechanical checks to ready the vehicle for flight, including hydraulic power unit hot fire, steering tests and internal power verifications using flight batteries.

United Space Alliance of Houston is NASA's prime contractor for the ground processing of the Ares I-X rocket.

"Processing for the Ares I-X test flight in parallel with space shuttle operations has been a true challenge involving people and hardware from across the country, and we're very proud of what the team has accomplished," said Mark Nappi, vice president of Launch and Recovery Systems for United Space Alliance.

ATK Space Systems of Magna, Utah, is NASA's prime contractor for the first stage of the rocket.

"The NASA and contractor teamwork displayed over the last four years has been the catalyst that brought us to this important milestone today," said Bob Herman, ATK's vice president of Exploration Systems for Kennedy Space Center Operations. "As the Ares I first stage provider, we are looking forward to receiving invaluable data during the flight test."

At the Flight Test Readiness Review on Oct. 23, mission managers will finalize the launch date and provide the team with a final "go" or "no go" for launch.

Ares I-X is an uncrewed, suborbital development test in a modified Ares I configuration. Ares I-X is the first developmental flight test of the Constellation Program, which includes the Ares I and V rockets, Orion and the Altair lunar lander.

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NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Jack Pfaller


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Jim Grossmann


NASA / Jack Pfaller

ONE MONTH FROM NOW, the Ares I-X rocket will be launched on a flight test from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I don’t care what the naysayers say, I’m stoked.


Courtesy of nasa1fan/MSFC

Today also marks two years since the Dawn spacecraft launched for the Asteroid Belt.


NASA / UCLA

THESE PHOTOS PISS ME OFF...but not for the reasons you'd expect. NASA finally completed the assembly of the Ares I-X rocket yesterday...making it the first new launch vehicle to reside inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center in almost 30 years. Unfortunately, thanks to a series of delays, including that caused by the Hubble Servicing Mission...which was scheduled to launch in May of last year but didn’t get off the ground till this year, and the results of the Obama-appointed Augustine committee (which will most likely recommend to the president that the Ares I program be scrapped), Ares I-X might never fly. Or it WILL fly...but it will be nothing more than a publicity stunt since the launch vehicle that it is a prototype for will most likely be cancelled (Hell... It's as much a waste of money assembling Ares I-X without launching it as it is flying the vehicle as nothing more than a "glorified model rocket". Just launch the damn thing). *Sigh.* Screw you Congress, for not giving NASA the money it needs to send astronauts beyond Low-Earth Orbit once more. And screw you Obama...for not having any vision for our space program, and relying on some presidential panel to give you an inkling of an idea for what direction NASA should take. F**K THAT.


NASA / Dimitri Gerondidakis

NASA / Jack Pfaller

AS PROMISED in this previous journal entry, here are more photos of Ares I-X as it continues to be prepared at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.


NASA / Jack Pfaller

Yesterday, a boilerplate mockup of the Orion spacecraft arrived at KSC via U.S. Air Force cargo plane (above). The mockup was manufactured at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia (below). This is a huge milestone as Ares I-X gets ready for a test flight that will hopefully take place this July. The next milestone will be the delivery of the vehicle’s first-stage solid rocket booster from its manufacturer (Alliant Techsystems, or ATK) in Utah. It is scheduled to arrive at KSC late next month.


NASA / Sean Smith

Another significant event to take place at KSC this week was Monday's re-opening of a vital processing facility at the spaceport, which will be the site where the Orion spacecraft undergoes final assembly by Lockheed Martin (the aerospace contractor responsible for building Orion) prior to launch. The building (known as the Operations & Checkout Facility), which took about two years to renovate, was the site where the Apollo spacecraft was prepared for launch almost 40 years ago. Orion assembly activity is set to begin at the O&C Facility in 2012...despite the fact the first manned flight of the spacecraft won’t take place till 2015. This is all assuming, of course, that President Obama continues to press ahead with the Constellation program. He has yet to select a new Administrator for NASA after the former chief, Mike Griffin, departed from the space agency earlier this month.


NASA / Dimitri Gerondidakis

Today is NASA’s official Day of Remembrance for those who lost their lives over the course of America's space program, including the 17 astronauts who perished in the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia disasters. Here’s hoping that their legacy will continue to live on as a new era of human spaceflight is about to begin in the next few years. Hopefully.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!! It’s time for that annual journal entry where I post a series of events that are happening this year...and half of them interest me and only some of them interest you. Just kidding. Seriously though, you’ll notice a consistency of events from January to July that I’ve listed in the previous years...such as the USC Trojans playing football in the Rose Bowl every New Year’s Day to the Tour de France taking place in July (July 4 thru 26). And of course, just like the past recent years, there aren’t that many significant events (um, American-wise) taking place from August through December...which is why I list international stuff like elections taking place in Uruguay, Honduras and Chile (October 25, November 29 and December 11, respectively).



Personally, I’m looking forward to the re-release of The Dark Knight in theaters later this month, Christian Bale kicking cyborg ass as John Connor (May 22), the return of the Autobots and Decepticons to the big screen (June 26), the test flight of a prototype of America’s next generation launch vehicle (July 11) and a federal election in Germany (September 27). Just kidding about that last one. But I am looking forward to the return of the hit TV show 24 (January 11) as well as the launches of Kepler, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Glory spacecraft within the next 6 months (March 5, April 24 and June 15, respectively). Why am I looking forward to their launches? I’ll tell you later. That is all.



January 2009
-Rose Bowl: USC vs. Penn State (Jan 1)
-BCS National Championship Game in Miami, Florida: Oklahoma vs. Florida (Jan 8)
-66th Annual Golden Globe Awards (Jan 11)
-Season 7 premiere of 24 (Jan 11, 12)
-Season 8 premiere of American Idol (Jan 13, 14)
-Popular TV show Supernatural returns from hiatus on Season 4 (Jan 15)
-U.S. presidential inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama (Jan 20)
-Season 5 premiere of Lost (Jan 21)
-The Dark Knight re-release (Jan 23)
-2009 National Hockey League All-Star Game in Montreal, Quebec (Jan 25)



February 2009
-Super Bowl XLIII in Florida (Feb 1)
-51st Annual Grammy Awards (Feb 8)
-Mission STS-119... Space shuttle Discovery (Feb 12)
-51st annual Daytona 500 in Florida (Feb 15)
-2009 NBA All-Star Game in Phoenix, Arizona (Feb 15)
-NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, en route to asteroid Vesta, flies by Mars for a gravitational assist (Feb 17)
-81st Academy Awards (Feb 22)
-Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (Feb 27)



March 2009
-Launch of NASA’s Kepler spacecraft into solar orbit (Mar 5)
-World Baseball Classic (Mar 5)
-Start of the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens, hosted by Dubai (Mar 5)
-Watchmen (Mar 6)
-Conclusion of the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens (Mar 5)
-2009 NCAA March Madness basketball tournament begins with Opening Round Game (Mar 17)
-Conclusion of the March Madness tournament prior to the 2009 Final Four games in Michigan (Mar 29)



April 2009
-2009 NCAA Final Four basketball tournament in Detroit, Michigan (Apr 5)
-NCAA Final Four Championship Game in Detroit, Michigan (Apr 6)
-Dragonball: Evolution (Apr 8)
-The New York Mets open their new Citi Field stadium against the San Diego Padres (Apr 13)
-The New York Yankees open their new Yankee Stadium against the Cleveland Indians (Apr 16)
-Launch of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to the Moon (Apr 24)
-NFL Draft (Apr 25, 26)



May 2009
-X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May 1)
-Star Trek (May 8)
-Mission STS-125... Space shuttle Atlantis (May 12 – tentative)
-Angels & Demons (May 15)
-Mission STS-127... Space shuttle Endeavour (May 15 – tentative)
-Terminator Salvation (May 22)
-Start of the 2009 French Open tennis tournament (May 24)
-93rd Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (May 24)



June 2009
-Conclusion of the 2009 French Open (Jun 7)
-Start of the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa (Jun 14)
-Launch of NASA’s Glory spacecraft into Earth orbit (Jun 15)
-Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Jun 26)
-Conclusion of the FIFA Confederations Cup (Jun 28)



July 2009
-Start of the 2009 Tour de France (Jul 4)
-2012 (Jul 10)
-Test flight of NASA’s Ares I-X rocket (Jul 11)
-2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in St. Louis, Missouri (Jul 14)
-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Jul 17)
-2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome, Italy (Jul 19)
-Total solar eclipse (Jul 22)
-Conclusion of the Tour de France (Jul 26)



August 2009
-Conclusion of the 2009 World Aquatics Championships (Aug 2)
-Mission STS-128... Space shuttle Atlantis (Aug 6)
-G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Aug 7)
-Start of the 2009 World Rowing Championships in Poland (Aug 23)
-Conclusion of the World Rowing Championships (Aug 30)



September 2009
-Parliamentary election in Norway (Sep 14)
-Jennifer’s Body (Sep 18)
-Federal election in Germany (Sep 27)
-NASA’s Messenger spacecraft makes a third flyby of Mercury (Sep 29)



October 2009
-Toy Story 3-D (Oct 2)
-Announcement of the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics (Oct 2)
-Presidential elections in Uruguay (Oct 25)



November 2009
-Mission STS-129... Space shuttle Discovery (Nov 12)
-Sherlock Holmes (Nov 20)
-Presidential elections in Honduras (Nov 29)



December 2009
-Mission STS-130... Space shuttle Endeavour (Dec 10)
-Presidential election in Chile (Dec 11)
-Maiden voyage of the Oasis of the Seas cruise ship (Dec 12)
-Avatar (Dec 18)
-Deadline for implementing the United States’ REAL ID Act (Dec 31)

SpaceX

ENTER THE DRAGON... Yesterday, NASA offered two private aerospace companies—Orbital Sciences Corp. and SpaceX—a contract worth $3.5 billion to haul cargo and/or crew to the International Space Station (ISS) after the space shuttle retires in 2010. The reason why this interests me is pretty much implied above: the United States has the potential to have two types of manned vehicles that will take astronauts into space by 2015. Besides the Dragon capsule that's shown in the pic above, the other manned vehicle—of course—is NASA’s Orion spacecraft.


SpaceX

2009 should be an intriguing year for U.S. human spaceflight. The Dragon spacecraft and the Falcon 9 rocket (which is also constructed by SpaceX) that will carry Dragon into space will undergo a series of test launches next year. This July will see the launch of Ares I-X, a prototype of the Ares I rocket that will ferry the Orion spacecraft to the ISS, and hopefully to more distant destinations (ahem, the Moon, Near Earth Asteroids and of course, Mars?) starting in the later half of next decade. The launch of Ares I-X, however, depends on whether or not the shuttle Atlantis will be able to get off the ground next May on a mission to service and repair the Hubble Space Telescope one last time.


NASA / Troy Cryder

One more thing: Our nation’s potential to have two manned space vehicles by 2015 also hinges on what Barack Obama does when he officially becomes the U.S. President on January 20. *Crosses fingers.*


NASA

NASA / Troy Cryder

TWO BIRDS, READY FOR FLIGHT... At 3:59 AM, Pacific Time yesterday, space shuttle Endeavour arrived at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39B to begin preps for a potential rescue mission (STS-400) if Atlantis is found damaged during her flight to the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis herself has been at Pad 39A since September 4, and is still on track for an October 9 launch to HST.


NASA / Troy Cryder

If Atlantis is found to be unscathed during STS-125, Endeavour will be rolled over to Pad 39A, and begin preparations for her next official flight, STS-126. 39B will then officially be handed over to NASA’s Constellation program, and will be the site of next year’s launch of the Ares I-X rocket. Ares, in case you didn’t know, is the vehicle that will hopefully launch American astronauts back to the Moon by 2020. Hopefully.


FLORIDA TODAY / Michael R. Brown