Ares rocket power into the skies
Many people around the world will be looking for good news – or any news – surrounding NASA’s flagship Constellation Program. Unfortunately it was not good but pretty bad news for those onlookers last month as NASA announced a postponement of some two years for the final launch date of the Constellation project. Hopefully this will be the first and last major setback that the team have to announce!
On the good news front, the Ares I rocket – that impressive piece of kit that will be powering the Orion shuttle into orbit – has passed a preliminary design review. The Ares design review – the first in what will be many stages of the iterative design review process – was undertaken by some 1,100 specialists based in Huntsville, Alabama at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. It is clear that these things take time and effort. Rightly so, considering the human beings that will be on board when this baby takes to the skies. Not to mention the billions of taxpayers’ dollars that have been, and will continue to be, thrown at the project so far.
The Ares rocket is perhaps the most important piece of the project as far as getting into space. Without Ares the Orbit shuttle becomes little more than a small bus without wheels.
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