Ares 1-X booster rocket dented in test flight
Mystery thump
The first stage booster rocket used in the Ares I-X test flight was found to be badly dented when it was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean.
Ares 1-X was launched Wednesday to test the rocket's flight characteristics and hardware. NASA hopes Ares 1 will carry astronauts aboard the new Orion crew exploration vehicle back to the moon and onwards to Mars – unless, of course, the White House decides to deep six the space agency's lofty plans.
On-board video for the booster cut out before main parachute deployment, so NASA is currently unable to determine whether the damage was caused by any of the rocket's three 150-foot-wide parachutes not properly inflating, the rocket hitting the ocean at an unexpected angle, or some other unknown issue Spaceflightnow reports.
The booster is being towed by NASA's recovery ships back to Kennedy Space Center and should arrive sometime Thursday evening, where engineers can give closer inspection to the damage.
NASA shuttle managers, meanwhile, have chosen November 16 for the launch of Atlantis mission STS-129 to the International Space Station.
The date may shift depending on the November 14 launch of an Atlas V rocket from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. If the Atlas launch is delayed to the 15th, the shuttle liftoff will move to no earlier than 2:02 pm on November 17, NASA said. ®
COMMENTS
never buy cameras on ebay
NASA should stop buying their kit off e-bay. 5 quid for proving that the video system was made by kids in some chinese sweatshop
Re: Poor Sinked Ship
"Poor sinked ship #
By Anonymous Coward Posted Friday 30th October 2009 06:59 GMT
Of course they won't see what happened. After all the thip that was hit by the falling rocket sinked very quickly."
Thip?? So, after the impact, the ship developed a lisp to Starboard?
You gents will have to take it from here...
I'm afraid we're in the process of creating our own version of the NHS on this side of the pond. So we'll have no money left over for cool nerdy stuff like rockets in space, or even less nerdy but still cool stuff like roads, bridges, and water pipes.
Moonbase Alpha is up to you UK. Do us proud.
Mines the one with the moon immigration visa and the 'learning conversational British' softcover in the pocket.
WTF icon: For what happened to the double ringed orbital station Arthur promised us in 2001. All I got was a floating six pack.
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
Cloud based data management
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had
What you need to know about cloud backup
