The Space Shuttle is OLD, well past the sell-by date, and soon to be put out to pasture. I is an amazing piece of machinery that, oddly enough, proved that the re-use model can actually be more expensive that the build and throw away model…Not that I’m knocking it! The Shuttle has pushed the boundaries of space craft design and has facilitated mission after mission to the International Space Station (ISS),  Hubble, and many many more.

But the timing for the decommisioning of the Shutte is terrible as NASA struggles to figure out how to maintain it’s committements to servicing the ISS while potentially not having a working spacecraft.  Its down to money and reasonably simple choices. The Space Shuttle or the Consellations programme. The good news is that Ares 1-x is finally ready for serious testing.

Ares 1-X is an new rocket design that borrows from some of the more cost effective aspects of the Shuttle design. It is the first new rocket design rolled onto the launchpad by NASA in over 3 decades. Yet it only took 4 years to design, build and prepare for testing. This is the biggest rocket since the Saturn V, a powerhouse which should deliver substantial payloads to higher orbits than the Shuttle can reach.

Ares 1-X is set for an unmanned test launch Oct 27th 2009 which is the first stage of shaking out the inevitable issues that will arise with a build this complex.

Ares 1-X on the launchpad