Preliminary result of Ares 1-X: 'rock-steady'

[William Atkins]

The Ares 1-X rocket, launched by NASA on its first test flight Wednesday, October 28, 2009, performed normally except for a parachute problem and performed even better than expected with respect to its thrust oscillations.

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Launched from launch pad 39B at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), 1530 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the first test launch of the 100-meter (327-foot) Ares 1-X rocket produced 2.6 million pounds of thrust.

On its flight, the rocket reached a maximum speed of Mach 4.76 (or 4.76 times the speed of sound). In other words, its top speed was about 5,831 kilometers (3,623 miles) per hour.

Its peak acceleration was about 3gs (“three gees”), or about three times the acceleration of the force of gravity.

The rocket also reached a suborbital altitude of about 45.7 kilometers (28.4 miles or 150,000 feet), which occurred after the separation of its first stage. Its burnout altitude was about 40 kilometers (130,000 feet).

In other words, the rocket ended its powered thrust at about 40 kilometers in height, but the rocket continued to go up for another 5 or 6 kilometers (to about 45.7 kilometers).

The rocket went downrange (east) of the launch pad for about 240 kilometers (150 miles).

The flight consisted of about two minutes of powered flight for the rocket, with about six minutes of combined powered and unpowered time from launch to landing in the ocean.

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Article Link at http://www.itwire.com/content/view/28958/1066/

[Bern]

In the video I saw, it seemed that the rocket, on lift-off, initially tipped over a little, with the bottom end swinging a couple of metres toward the tower. Was that supposed to happen? I thought these things were supposed to head up vertically until they cleared the tower structure.

[William Atkins]

I think the NASA engineers plan a slight maneuver into its trajectory, just after launch, to "steer" the rocket away from the launch pad. The manuever helps to direct the exhaust away from the launch pad--minimizes any possible damage to the pad and tower. Then, after it clears the tower, a roll manuever is instituted. I think you observed the steering manuever, before it cleared the tower. Check out the article at http://spaceflightnow.com/ares1x/091026preview/, for additional manuevers during the launch phase of Ares 1-X.