Another NASA space farse

NASA puts new rocket on launch pad for test flight
AP
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn, Ap Aerospace Writer – Tue Oct 20, 11:03 am ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA's lofty new rocket arrived at the launching pad Tuesday for a test flight next week that comes at a time when the future of the country's spaceflight program is up in the air.

It's the first time in 34 years that a rocket other than the space shuttle has stood at Launch Pad 39-B. NASA modified the pad for this rocket, which is supposed to eventually carry astronauts to the moon.

But the White House may scrap those plans. A panel of aerospace experts that provided President Barack Obama with a list of possible exploration options is issuing its final report later this week.

The experimental Ares I rocket — taller than the Statue of Liberty — spent all night traveling from the hangar to the pad. The four-mile trip took more than seven hours.

The test vehicle will blast off next Tuesday on a 2 1/2-minute ballistic flight to demonstrate how the partial first stage performs. It's costing NASA $445 million.

They taken a shuttle SRB (solid rocket booster (the thing attached to the side of the big tank at launch)) and topped it with a stack of fake rocketry.
They will launch this SRB out into the ocean, recover the SRB just like they do every other SRB and then claim to have made a successful ARES launch. ARES is a farse, NASA has become a joke. The Europeans, Russians, Japanese and even the Chinese will soon make the once mighty US Space Program look like a comedy show.

It's sad that so many great NASA heroes, engineers and scientists from the 60s have to live to see this absurdity evolve.