CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida. – NASA announces that Ares I-X test rocket

lifted off last Wednesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida

for a two-minute powered flight. The test flight lasted about six

minutes from its launch from the newly-modified Launch Complex 39B

until splash down of the rocket's booster stage nearly 150 miles down

range.

"This is a huge step forward for NASA's exploration goals," said Doug

Cooke, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission

Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Ares I-X provides

NASA with an enormous amount of data that will be used to improve the

design and safety of the next generation of American spaceflight

vehicles -- vehicles that could again take humans beyond low Earth

orbit."

The 327-foot tall Ares I-X test vehicle produced 2.6 million pounds of

thrust to accelerate the rocket to nearly 3 g's and Mach 4.76.

It capped its easterly flight at a sub-orbital altitude of 150,000 feet after the separation of its

first stage, a four-segment solid rocket booster.

Parachutes deployed for recovery of the booster and the solid rocket

motor will be recovered at sea for later inspection.

"The most valuable learning is through experience and observation,"

said Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager. "Tests such as this -- from

paper to flight -- are vital in gaining a deeper understanding of the

vehicle, from design to development."

Wednesday's flight offered an early opportunity to test and prove

hardware, facilities, and ground operations - important data for

future space vehicles. During the flight, a range of performance data

was relayed to the ground and also stored in the onboard flight data

recorder. The 700 sensors mounted on the vehicle provide flight test

engineering data to correlate with computer models and analysis. The

rocket's sensors gathered information in several areas, including

assembly and launch operations, separation of the vehicle's first and

second stages, controllability and aerodynamics, the re-entry and

recovery of the first stage and new vehicle design techniques.

For information about Ares I-X, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/aresIX  

Source: NASA