Weather, Other Issues Delay Launch of New US Rocket
By VOA News
27 October 2009
The U.S. space agency NASA has delayed the launch of its newest rocket, the Ares I-X because of weather and other difficulties.
Despite the problems, the rocket is still scheduled to be launched Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida.
Changing weather and technical problems have delayed the launch several times. At one point, a cargo ship sailed into the "danger area" off the coast of Florida and threatened a long delay of the launch. But the ship was contacted and left the zone, and the countdown resumed.
The flight will last only two minutes before the rocket falls into the Atlantic Ocean, but NASA engineers hope to learn valuable information about the Ares I-X's performance from the 700 sensors installed in the rocket.
The next-generation rocket is a modified version of the space shuttle's solid-fuel booster rocket.
The Ares I-X rocket is part of NASA's plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020, and also to transport crews to the International Space Station.
The rocket may also use its 25 ton payload capacity to deliver resources and supplies to the space station, or to "park" payloads in orbit for retrieval by other spacecraft bound for the moon or other destinations.
Tuesday's planned rocket test comes as observers are casting doubt on the future of the U.S. manned space program
A White House task force says NASA's current $18 billion annual budget has placed the space agency's plans for human space flight on "an unsustainable trajectory."
NASA hopes the first manned mission of Ares will happen by 2015, but the panel says that will not be possible until 2017.
The space shuttle fleet is scheduled to be phased out by 2010.
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