Well the sun has come up and the Area 1-X is looking ready to fly however due to the delays with the getting the rocket ready it is unlikely that it will launch today as the weather conditions seem to be getting worse.
Tag: 1-X
Apparently they just broke a torque wrench that is used to close a hatch on the Ares 1-X dummy upper stage and now they have to get a spare to close the hatch. Right now they are running about 30 minutes late but apparently this is not going to affect the planned launch time of 8am East Coast time.
They just released a weather balloon to test the winds before the launch of the Ares 1-X that is now 1 hours 30 min from launching. Next step will be to swing away the service structure clear for launch.
Ares 1-X the first test launch of the new space craft that will used to replace space shuttle is now 2hours 30minutes from launch. I have notices that he countdown for the launch has been very talkative and a lot of question are being asked as to what to do.
“she is now sure, but she will go over there if you want to”
Probably a lot more relaxed seeing no one is in this think and that even if everything goes to place it will still crash into the ocean.
NASA has now finished (see figure 1) the Ares 1-X test rocket which is due to be launched in a sub-orbital flight in October 31st. However a recent article on the guardian web site suggest that without a cash injection this may be the only Ares 1 rocket we will see. It will not be practical for them to get to the Moon by 2020 as Bush directed them to do back in 2004 due to lack of budget. Back in the 60’s NASA had about 5% of the GDP of the USA to design and build the Apollo rocket to get them to the Moon by the end of the decade but now NASA is trying to do the same thing with less than 1% of the GDP. Weather the Constellation program is cancelled or just delayed is still not decided but with the USA in the middle of the economic melt down I doubt that Obama will be sending them any more money.
Figure 1. Ares 1-X finished
Source: Houston, we have a cashflow problem: return to the moon in doubt | Science | guardian.co.uk
