All Aboard! Ares I-X Motors Chug In To KSC

A train hauling rocket motors for NASA's Ares I-X mission chugged in to Kennedy Space Center today, marking a key milestone for the first in a series of test flights aimed at qualifying Ares 1 rockets for launching American astronauts.

Now all the parts required for the $360 million Ares I-X test are at NASA's prime launch operations center, setting the stage for the upcoming assembly of the 321-foot Ares I-X rocket and a vitally important test flight in July or August.

"We're really excited to have those segments here," said Joe Oliva, program director for Ares 1 Flight Tests at ATK, manufacturer of the rocket's first stage. "All of the hardware -- we've got everything within the fence at KSC."

"If you want to talk about Ares I-X, you've got to come to KSC now. This is the place where it's all happening," added Jon Cowart, NASA's deputy mission manager for Ares I-X at KSC. "We've got all the hardware, and people are getting energized and excited."

NASA aims to launch the Ares I-X test flight on July 11, but there is a good chance the test flight will slip to August.

The Ares I-X rocket is scheduled to be launched from KSC's pad 39B, but NASA now plans to roll Endeavour to that complex to serve as a rescue vehicle for the crew of Atlantis in the event that shuttle sustains critical damage during its planned May 12 launch from pad 39A on a fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.

NASA is considering an option to launch both Atlantis and the Endeavour rescue mission -- if required -- from pad 39A, freeing up pad 39B for the Ares I-X test flight.

But that would involve rolling Endeavour out to pad 39A in advance of Atlantis so it could be loaded with propellants used to power its twin orbital maneuvering engines and 44 nose-and-tail steering thrusters.

Endeavour then would be rolled back to the KSC Vehicle Assembly Building, where it would wait in the wings for the Atlantis launch. The early propellant-loading operation would enable NASA to move Endeavour to pad 39A and launch it on a rescue mission within a week of the Atlantis launch.

A decision to proceed with single-pad operations would enable NASA to press ahead with the Ares I-X flight in mid-July. But it would have a ripple effect, triggering about a one-month delay in each of NASA's eight remaining International Space Station assembly missions.

That would make it more difficult for NASA to launch all its remaining station assembly and outfitting missions before a deadline late next year.

The arrival of the Ares I-X train came after a seven-day, 2,917-mile journey from ATK's manufacturing facility in Utah. Aboard covered rail cars are the four shuttle solid rocket boosters that will form the first stage of the Ares I-X rocket.

The Ares I-X will comprise the four-segment shuttle booster, a fifth-segment simulator, a newly developed forward skirt, forward skirt extension and frustum, and mock-ups of the rocket's second stage, Orion crew module and launch abort system.

The test flight will enable NASA to gather data on the performance of the rocket's first-stage flight control system, its stage-separation system and the parachute recovery system that will be used to lower the reusable solid rocket motor segments into the Atlantic Ocean for retrieval.

The solid rocket booster segments will be moved into a processing facility just north of the KSC Vehicle Assembly Building.

Solid rocket booster stacking operations are scheduled to begin in April or May.

ABOUT THE IMAGES: Click to enlarge the Florida Today images of the train carrying first-stage shuttle solid rocket booster segments for the planned July 11 launch of the $360 million Ares I-X test flight. Photo credit: Michael R. Brown/Florida Today.