Article published November 10, 2009
Ohio back in space
WHATEVER ultimately happens to NASA's grand program to send astronauts back to the Moon by 2020, Ohio has secured its place in the dream mission with its role in the successful test launch of the agency's new moon rocket.
It's a point of pride for the state that Glenn Research personnel in NASA's Brook Park facility near Cleveland designed and built the upper stage mockup of the test rocket that recently completed a near flawless flight.
The Ares-1-X, which lifted from Cape Canaveral in Florida, is the model for a new generation of booster rockets intended to carry humans back to the moon and perhaps other destinations in the solar system. In just three years, from conception to flying machine, an engineering team at NASA Glenn produced a prototype of Ares 1, the rocket slated to replace the space shuttle as NASA's primary space vehicle over the next several years.
The Glenn-made tube with about 250 sensors to measure results, sat above the attached crew capsule simulator, which stood in for its eventual successor called Orion. The meticulous instrument readings from the rocket's brief trip will help NASA engineers refine and improve the Ares 1.
The test launch comes at a crucial time for the space agency as the White House reviews a commissioned report on the fate of the entire project. Doug Cooke, director of NASA's exploration systems believes the firstflight test is valuable regardless of any decisions in the future. "We're learning about validating our models," he said. "It's about learning from it."
The encouraging performance of this initial design, due in no small part to the methodical work of Glenn engineers, could be what keeps the moon program flying to the next level.
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