New Rocket, but Future of Program Is Unclear

The launching of the Ares I-X, a prototype. It comes less than a week after a blue-ribbon panel reviewing NASA’s human spaceflight program released its final report, which offers a less-than-ringing endorsement of the Ares I rocket and brings the entire program into question. Most of the options explored by the panel look to alternatives from commercial companies to carry astronauts into Earth orbit.

The $450 million Ares I-X is almost the same size and shape as the planned Ares I, but with a less powerful first stage and a dummy second stage. The test flight will carry 700 sensors to measure stress, temperature, vibrations and other data that will give engineers a chance to validate and tweak their designs.

NASA had originally hoped that it might begin carrying astronauts to the International Space Station in 2012. The current NASA schedule calls for the first flight in 2015, but the review panel concluded that with the agency’s financial constraints, the Ares I was not likely to make its first manned flight until 2017.

Critics of the Ares I, which is part of NASA’s Constellation program intended to return astronauts to the Moon by 2020, have described it as too expensive, underpowered and technically flawed.