ABC, NYTimes, AP, etc: New NASA Rocket set for test launch. And NASA set for a re-launch too.
On the pad, cleared for takeoff tomorrow if the weather is okay, is a skinny and enormously, almost Saturn V-class high if not powerful rocket. The bulbous top is only a well-instrumented dummy stand-in for a second stage and the bottom is a lightly rebuilt solid rocket booster from the shuttle program. The Ares 1-X is however the first dramatic and tangible fruit of the Constellation Program, NASA’s currently-approved means for continuing to keep Americans in space on US vehicles once the shuttle program evaporates – probably next year. NASA says Ares 1 will be ready in 2015, others say it will be longer.
The curtain raisers for the launch just about all note the uncertain stakes in the launch. Either the rocket’s success is critical to continued development of a new family of human-rated boosters able to go to the space station or leap much farther – to the Moon, even Mars. Or, it does not matter a whole lot should the current administration order a different strategy – as strongly suggested by last week’s report to the White House from the Norman Augustine-chaired, independent review commission. It has spent many months pondering NASA’s wisest course forward and the financial implications of trying to stay on its current plan. Its guess for Ares 1′s operation start: 2017. Until then, US hitchhikes with Russians or, barely conceivably, on a rocket from a second-party vender.
We’ll catch up a bit below with some examples of coverage of the report. As for the rocket test, its ties to past policies, are seen in a lede at ABC News from reporter Gina Sunseri: This isn’t your daddy’s space ship – but it is something your grandfather might recognize. The really old part is the conical, Apollo-reminiscent capsule sitting on top (with nobody in it for this test, of course.)
A bit harsher assessment, at Canada’s National Post, includes a “news service” compilation saying the rocket’s future is in doubt, along with a notable graphic and caption by Shane Dingman with the hed: New Ares 1 Nasa rocket already obsolete, report suggests.
At the NY Times, Kenneth Chang gives the launch a solid description, rich with its context of an agency in a policy and budget limbo. Could be a pathbreaker, he reports, or it “could also be a swan song.”
Other Ares 1-X test-launch stories:
- Cleveland Plain Dealer – John Mangels: Weather remains iffy for Tuesday liftoff – Arex 1-X launch ; This follows his piece over the weekend: Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center wins praise for its work – Ares 1-X launch ; The paper is giving this a major push as a local story, covering the launch directly. Another Mangels story recently described in detail with extensive illus the Glenn center’s construction of the upper stage mockup.
- Christian Science Monitor – Peter Spotts: The NASA Ares 1-X rocket is set for launch – but watch those clouds!,” post today follows his piece last week: Move over space shuttle; here comes the NASA Ares 1-X ;
- Florida Today – John Kelly: Ares 1 rocket close, yet so far / Test gets ‘go,’ but rocket’s future is muddier than ever ;
Catch up: Examples of coverage of Augustine report released Thursday:
- Washington Post – Joel Achenbach: Manned NASA trips at ‘tipping point’ on funds;
- Chr. Science Monitor – Peter N. Spotts: Augustine report: tough choices ahead on human spaceflight ;
- Science News – Ron Cowen: Panel Says Planned NASA Rocket Won’t Do The Job / ..too expensive and won’t be ready in time… ;
- Hearst Newspapers – Stewart M. Powell, Eric Berger: Panel: NASA’s ambitious goals need more money ;
- AP – Seth Borenstein: Panel says NASA should skip moon, fly elsewhere ; Unsure if it said flatly to SKIP the moon – but it does say don’t build rockets that can’t do that job or anything else even farther off.
- New Scientist – David Shiga: White House panel sees little point to new NASA rocket ;
- Register (UK) Lester Haines: Ares 1: What’s the Point? Waster of cash, says spaceflight review chairman ;
Grist for the Mill:
Augustine Commission final report ;
NASA/Constellation News Site ;
Tracker says: Here’s my entirely unresearched roadmap for NASA. Keep sending robots all over the solar system, and maybe a few astronauts to Libration points or asteroids if they are really really better there than automated probes would be. And if China or ESA or India or anybody else sends a human expedition to the Moon or Mars or wherever, NASA keep on hand a few all-purpose, go-anywhere autonomous machine landers to sneak into the landing zone first and show the touchdown on live TV and with virtual reality capabilities so that anybody on Earth can witness it as though first hand. Maybe for the space-suited ones who step off the expensive tourist ship it could hold up a sign : Humanity’s emissary is already here, courtesy of the USA. Welcome!
- Charlie Petit
