Live At KSC: NASA's Ares I-X Rollout Slips An Hour

LIVE IMAGES: The images above are from live video feeds of NASA TV (left) and the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing Weather Channel. They will automatically refresh to the most up-to-the-minute image every 30 seconds.

BLOGGER UPDATE, 12:12 a.m.: WEATHER OUTLOOK IMPROVES. NASA just received a weather briefing from forecasters at the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing and it appears that conditions will be good enough to proceed with rollout of the Ares I-X rocket. The rollout now is targeted to begin at 1 a.m., but NASA might be able to move that up a few minutes. The forecast calls for a 40 percent chance of rain, but rain is not a constraint to rollout. The winds are expected to be around 17 knots with gusts to 25 knots. The probablility of winds exceeding a 30.5 knot limit is only 10 percent. The chance of lightning in the area during rollout: Zero percent. Click the NASA TV box on the right side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer and live coverage. We'll update the blog after we return from the first-motion viewing site near the Vehicle Assembly Building.

BLOGGER UPDATE: 10:45 p.m.: ONE-HOUR DELAY. NASA will be pushing back the rollout of the Ares I-X rocket to give engineers and technicians more time to finish preparations for the planned overnight move out to launch pad 39B. No new time has been set for first motion. But NASA officials say the operation is running about an hour behind schedule. First-motion had been set for 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. The 4.2-mile move is expected to take about eight hours to complete.

BLOGGER UPDATE: 10 p.m.: WINDS IFFY. Preparations for the planned rollout of the Ares I-X rocket from the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building are on track but mission managers will be keeping close tabs on the weather, particularly, the winds. NASA staged a Call To Stations in Firing Room 1 of the Launch Control Center at 8 p.m. and first motion remains in schedule for 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. The overnight winds, however, are expected to be close to 30-knot limits. Forecasts earlier in the day had call for sustained winds of about 23 knots.

The world's tallest rocket is slated to roll out of the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building tonight in what should be an impressive 4.2-mile move out to launch pad 39B.

Mounted atop a mobile launcher platform that tops a tracked transporter, NASA's 327-foot-tall Ares I-X test rocket is expected to emerge from High Bay No. 3 of the 52-story assembly building at 12:01 a.m.

A Call-To-Stations in NASA's Launch Control Center is scheduled for 8 p.m. The operation is being staged out of Firing Room 1, now dubbed the Young-Crippen Firing Room for the commander and pilot of NASA's first shuttle flight: John Young and Bob Crippen.

You can watch the historic event live here in The Flame Trench beginning at 11:45 p.m. Simply click the NASA TV box on the right side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer and live coverage. NASA's George Diller will be providing commentary. Be sure to refresh this page, too, for periodic updates.

Coming a week before launch, the rollout is expected to take about eight hours to complete. NASA's Apollo-era crawler transporter will be moving at a top speed of about 0.8 mph as it moves down a river-rock crawlerway.

A crew of about 17 NASA and United Space Alliance engineers, managers, technicians and safety inspectors will escort the rocket, which will be the largest NASA has rolled out since the mid-1970s. NASA's Saturn V moon rocket was 363 feet tall.

"We're doing a lot of things we haven't done in about 30 years," NASA Ares I-X Deputy Mission Manager Jon Cowart said.

NASA at this hour is not working any technical problems that would delay first-motion of the towering vehicle. But mission managers will keep close tabs on the weather, particularly, the winds.

The slender single-stick rocket is secured to the mobile launcher platform by four hold-down posts. NASA safety rules call for the Ares I-X rollout to be put on hold if winds exceed 30 knots (36 mph).

The forecast for rollout calls for a chance of sustained winds at 26 mph.

NASA's Ares I-X rocket comprises a four-segment shuttle solid rocket booster, a fifth segment spacer and mock-ups of Ares I's second stage, Orion crew capsule and Launch Abort System tower.

A five-segment solid rocket motor will form the first stage of the Ares I rocket and its second stage will be powered by a liquid-fueled J2X engine -- an upgraded version of the second stage that power Saturn V moon rockets.

The $350 million test flight aims to check out how well the3e first stage of the rocket can be controlled. The system that separates the rocket's first and second stages also will be tested along with the first stage parachute recovery system.

For information on the upcoming launch:

Click HERE for an Ares I-X Fact Sheet.

Click HERE for an Ares I-X engineering drawing.

Click HERE for an Ares I-X flyer.

Click HERE for an Ares I-X Test Flight Report delivered to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2008.

ABOUT THE IMAGES: Click to enlarge and save the Florida Today images of the Ares I-X rocket in High Bay No. 3 of the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building. The rocket stands 327 feet tall. Photo credit: Michael R. Brown/Florida Today.