Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ares 1-X

The un-manned test rocket Ares 1-X is scheduled to lift this morning. Weather delays are keeping it on the launch pad right now.
All the cable channels are covering the event, if you're interesetd.

A comedy of bad luck so far.

First, clouds over the pad delay it. Then they have trouble pulling a weather cover off a probe. Then they start the count and get down to two minutes and change when a ship wanders into the danger zone. By the time they contact the ship and get it turned around, the weather moves in again.

They had three good weather windows to launch, but something else kept happening. Then when the other constraints were cleared, the weather crumped again. Sheesh.

Still trying, though. They have until noon Eastern time before they scrub until tomorrow.

I really wanted to see the launch, but am now pressed for time and must be on my way.
I hope it goes today, and well. Catching the event after the fact won't kill me, it's like left-overs still plenty-good.
The error with the probe cover is a bit frustrating though.

Scrubbed for today. Weather.

Tentative try again tomorrow.

So Rocky lay it on me, why are we playing around with unmanned rockets? We just wasting money or is there a purpose?

Do you want to volunteer to sit on top the first "technology demonstrator" before all the bugs have been worked out?

There is a place for unmanned rockets - maybe even a bigger place than for manned ones. Neither should be used exclusively.

The ARES-1X test is needed to verify the aerodynamics and vibration characteristics of the proposed vehicle. Both are in question, and real-world data needs to be gathered. To that end, this vehicle has a partially live first stage (four live segments and one inert) and mass-weighted upper stages.

Assuming this one doesn't break up in flight or shake itself to pieces - and both or either are possible - followup flights with all genuine flight hardware might be scheduled. If this one does self-destruct, NASA might be back to the drawing board, with no hope of a manned vehicle in service before the Space Station is decommissioned in 2016 or so.

With the current administration, that could essentially put NASA out of the space business.

There is some sort of treaty against weapons in space correct? Still, talk about the potential for a sudden attack....

Where did you get the idea this was a weapon?

Thanks Rocky.

Potential to be weaponized is what I was only pondering about... Predator drone with a world wide reach... only speculation.

Look up "Rods from God" is you want to see some interesting space weapons. It was just a concept, but man it would make the world an even more interesting place.

Link Here

Newguy...thanks I was just getting ready to Google it when I saw your post...

Speaking of posts.. I really liked this guys ideas

I�ll take 3 of them.

One over Iran;

The second over North Korea;

The other over San Fransisco.

That should handle the world�s top 3 enemies.

If we got a fourth, I�d like it over Al Gore�s house.

Ummmmm, 2ndwind, a warhead atop a missile is not exactly new thinking. I think some guy named Nilter, or something like that came up with one first.


(Actually, it was a guy named Congreve, and his little toys prompted that whole "rockets' red glare" thing. But those were far from strategic in range.)

Maybe I read too many science fiction books as a kid Rocky <OK I admit, I just re read Dune last year> but no flight stage rising up and then over toward a target would seem like a pretty desirable feature...

Plus just think what the possibility of a "rod from god" unannounced at anytime would do to the blood pressure of a regional deposit with a hardened nuclear program....

Not sure what you mean by "no flight stage rising up" unless you mean having a bomb of some kind in orbit. Two problems with that: it's against international treaties, and objects in orbit are tracked with exquisite precision. We pretty much know not only where something is and when it will pass overhead, but by back-calculating, know where it was launched. We track objects as small as a hand grenade, so it's unlikely a bomb large enough to do anything would go unseen.

Apparently, they had some lightning strikes very near the pad last night (not uncommon) and they have to re-calibrate, re-certify and re-test a LOT of ground equipment this morning before they can try.

They counted down to T-4 minutes, and are holding there until all the work gets done. Earliest possible is about 9:15 Eastern. Weather might still be an issue, also.

It's not looking good.
I steal a few minutes to see how it's going, and nothing but more delays. This project is off to a rough start, not what they need right now.

They launched it at 11:30 Eastern time -- perfectly. The onboard camera shots were SPECTACULAR.

To paraphrase Neil way back when, that's one small launch for NASA, one giant leap towards a man on Mars.

Hussein and his guys in the White House don't like the Ares rocket proposal, and want to derail it.
They are 'rethinking' the manned space program. My guess is that they will gut and mothball the program, so as to have money available for their cronies to steal.