Today at the 39b launch pad, part of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a test flight of the Aries 1-X Rocket was successful. The rockets engines fired for 2 minutes, and the flight lasted a total of 6 minutes before landing in the Atlantic Ocean 150 miles from where it took off. NASA officials said that the test flight will give them lots of knowledge about how to improve the Aries 1 rockets
The Aries 1 Rocket is planned to fill several holes in NASA's plans for the future of manned space flight. Firstly the rockets are to replace the aging fleet of Space Shuttles, which were designed & first built in the 1970's. The Aries 1, Orion Crew Capsule, and Aries 5 Heavy Payload Rockets will take crews & supplies between Earth & The International Space Station. Secondly the Aries 1 rocket, along with Orion & Aries 5, are to be the craft to take man back to the Moon. As part of The Constellation Programme, Aries 1 will also for the first time take man to our next closet neighbor in the Solar System, Mars.
With today's successful flight of the Aries 1-X Rocket, NASA is one step closer to ushering in the next era of space exploration.
(All back ground information on The Constellation Programme taken from the NASA website, and information on the Aries 1-X flight from NASA via it's iPhone app)
No comments:
Post a Comment