Seeing as there seem to be a few fans of all things scientific on here I thought this would be of interest.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/const ... index.html
This is the first flight test of Nasa's new crew launch vehicle that will replace the space shuttle in 2014.
If you think that the Ares 1 looks suspiciously like a space shuttle external tank sat on top of a space shutle solid rocket booster, well er.... that's because it is. There have been some re-designs to certain parts but effectively Nasa are trying to recycle as much tech from one project to the next in order to cut costs.
In this launch just the lower SRB (solid rocket booster) stage was tested and recovered while the second stage is just a mock up at the moment. The J2-S engines that will power this stage are still in the design phase.
This marks the first test of a "to be crewed" vehicle since the space shuttle however unlike Ares 1 the first flight test of the space shuttle took place on the 21st April 1981 with a crew of John Young and Bob Crippen strapped in. Now that must have taken some balls, not actually knowing if the whole thing would work since it had never been tested before.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/const ... index.html
This is the first flight test of Nasa's new crew launch vehicle that will replace the space shuttle in 2014.
If you think that the Ares 1 looks suspiciously like a space shuttle external tank sat on top of a space shutle solid rocket booster, well er.... that's because it is. There have been some re-designs to certain parts but effectively Nasa are trying to recycle as much tech from one project to the next in order to cut costs.
In this launch just the lower SRB (solid rocket booster) stage was tested and recovered while the second stage is just a mock up at the moment. The J2-S engines that will power this stage are still in the design phase.
This marks the first test of a "to be crewed" vehicle since the space shuttle however unlike Ares 1 the first flight test of the space shuttle took place on the 21st April 1981 with a crew of John Young and Bob Crippen strapped in. Now that must have taken some balls, not actually knowing if the whole thing would work since it had never been tested before.