Anyone excited about Ares 1-X launch this week?

[Stag]

I am a bit excited about this. Not that it is anything groundbreaking in terms of tech or design, but it does represent, for better or worse, NASA's next step forward (albeit with s toe stuck in the past).

I would love a successful launch considering the issues they have been having even though I am not sure this program is the right answer to the future space needs of the country and space flight development in general.

I'll post photos. Launch scheduled for Oct 20 at 8am.

 

[T J]

I want to be excited... I really do...

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Ares-I is like eating leftovers, because it's made from leftovers. Sure it fills your belly, but it's not very exciting.

Ares-V or an man rated Atlas V or other heavy lifter would get my attention.

 

[Mark de Vries]

I'm interested more than excited. It's mostly hardware that's been in use for years and it's not at all certain that the Ares I will be used in the future. Still, it's indeed a new man-rated rocket (first time since 1981), so it's certainly special.

 

[timelord1010]

I'm not excited at all. Can this even be called a test flight? The Ares 1-X is being launched with a dummy fifth segment and is suborbital. It would make better sense if NASA would instead invest the taxpayers money in a full up test launch and put a dummy payload into orbit, this would show Ares critics that the Ares works. This is what has been done with every other space vehicle up to the Saturn V and the Space Shuttle.

Like Alpha Geek said I would rather see a man rated Atlas or Delta over the Ares. There is something about putting humans on a solid rocket that never felt right. Once you fire up the solid rocket there is no abort, you are going somewhere and hopefully that's where you want to go.

 

[diankra]

I'm not excited at all. Can this even be called a test flight? The Ares 1-X is being launched with a dummy fifth segment and is suborbital. It would make better sense if NASA would instead invest the taxpayers money in a full up test launch and put a dummy payload into orbit, this would show Ares critics that the Ares works. This is what has been done with every other space vehicle up to the Saturn V and the Space Shuttle.

Like Alpha Geek said I would rather see a man rated Atlas or Delta over the Ares. There is something about putting humans on a solid rocket that never felt right. Once you fire up the solid rocket there is no abort, you are going somewhere and hopefully that's where you want to go.

First point: not really true - all-up testing was an innovation first used on the Saturn V. Among the man-rated vehicles, Atlas, Titan II and Saturn 1, not to mention the Soviet R7 variants, all had dummy stage and sub orbital test flights before the first full launch.
Second point: yes, I'm also unsure about the whole notion of basing Ares 1 around a revamp of the Shuttle SRBs. That was a design compromise that no-one liked (but had to accept due to budget contraints) when it was suggested for the Shuttle, and was initially suggested only as an interim measure until there was the chance to develop throttable liquid-fulled LRBs to replace them.
To be using them as the basis for the main crew launch vehicle 40 years later is... well, Von Braun and Korolev (and most of their colleagues) would be aghast, I suspect.

 

[JustAFriend]

A holdover Shuttle solid (still with no throttling or cutoff abilities) and a 1960's style water-splashdown capsule...

....oh yea, I'm just so thrilled....

(At least I can watch it out my front door)

 

[RobertVA]

The full Ares I will also feature a second stage engine similar to the one under the Saturn V third stage.

The Soyuz spacecraft that is still being used by the Russians has been duplicated since the late sixties. Remember the joint Apollo/Soyuz mission in the early seventies? Soyuz was to have been the Soviet version of the Apollo command/service module, but their manned moon landing program was canceled when Apollo XI captured all the glory.

I've seen suggestions that other boosters in the US inventory should be tested for manned use, but I'm wondering if they can lift the weight of a spacecraft accommodating six astronauts (as NASA wants Orion to eventually accommodate).

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Ares I:
Payload to LEO 25,000 kg (55,000 lb)

Atlas V:
Payload to LEO 9,750 - 29,420 kg [1] (21,490 - 64,860 lb)


Delta IV:
Payload to LEO 8,600 - 25,800 kg (18,900 - 56,800 lb)

 

[sojourner]

The full Ares I will also feature a second stage engine similar to the one under the Saturn V third stage.

The Soyuz spacecraft that is still being used by the Russians has been duplicated since the late sixties. Remember the joint Apollo/Soyuz mission in the early seventies? Soyuz was to have been the Soviet version of the Apollo command/service module, but their manned moon landing program was canceled when Apollo XI captured all the glory.

I've seen suggestions that other boosters in the US inventory should be tested for manned use, but I'm wondering if they can lift the weight of a spacecraft accommodating six astronauts (as NASA wants Orion to eventually accommodate).

LOL, ARES couldn't lift the payload it was designed for. That's why they keep stripping capabilities out of the Orion capsule.

The good news is this is most likely as far as ARES 1 will get. At the recommendation of the Augustine Commission, it will probably be canceled by the end of the November and Orion will end up where it should have been on either Atlas, Delta, or a true shuttle derived launch vehicle like Jupiter 120.