NASA scrubs Ares 1-X due to weather problems

William Atkins
Tuesday, 27 October 2009 21:33

Science - Space

In addition, at about 9:35 a.m. EDT, the flight director was contacted by his range safety controller that a freighter was in the restricted waters around the launch pad and downrange from it.

However, at about 9:40 a.m. EDT, the range safety officer (RSO) gave a “Go” to resume the count, after confirming that the freighter was outside of the restricted zone.

Further updates on later tries to launch the test rocket, possibly tomorrow, are found on the NASA website "Latest Ares 1-X Launch News."

The first test flight of the Ares 1-X rocket would have lasted approximately two minutes.

During the test, the flight profile of the Ares 1-X test rocket will approximate the flight conditions used by the operational Ares 1 rocket.

Ares 1-X will experience speeds up to Mach 4.5 when at an altitude of about 39,600 meters (around 130,000 feet) and at a maximum dynamic pressure (which NASA calls "MaxQ") of approximately 800 pounds per square foot (about 38 kilopascals).

Further information about the Ares 1-X rocket is found at the iTWire article "NASA gives GO to first test flight of Ares 1."

UPDATE: NASA announces that it will attempt to launch the Ares 1-X tomorrow at 8 a.m. EDT. The twenty-four turnaround time should see better weather conditions for the upcoming launch. Today's weather forecast a 60% chance of unacceptable weather. Wednesday's launch attempt should see about a 30% chance of unacceptable weather.