NASA
ARES I X Test Flight - October
28, 2009 NASA's
Ares I-X test rocket lifted off at 11:30
a.m. EDT Wednesday October 28, 2009 from NASA's Kennedy Space
Center in Florida for a two-minute powered flight. The test
flight lasted about six minutes from its launch from the
newly-modified Launch Complex 39B until splash down of the
rocket's booster stage nearly 150 miles down range.
"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 space flight vehicles -- vehicles that
could again take humans beyond low Earth orbit."
The 327-foot tall Ares I-X test vehicle produced 2.6 million
pounds of thrust to accelerate the rocket to nearly 3 g's and
Mach 4.76, just shy of hypersonic speed. It capped its easterly
flight at a sub-orbital altitude of 150,000 feet after the
separation of its first stage, a four-segment solid rocket
booster.
