Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Build the Ares I-X in Less Than Six Minutes


Here is a very nifty time-lapse video of what it took to put together the Ares I-X test vehicle, which will launch next month to test out NASA’s newest family of rocket. The big news is that NASA has actually moved up the date for the launch to Tuesday, October 27 from the original date of October 31. The new date is pending successful testing and data verification.

The rocket has been assembled on a mobile launch platform. This week, Ares I-X team members are conducting a launch countdown simulation and conducting final checks of the rocket’s systems. The checks will begin with the launch abort system simulator atop the rocket and continue down to its aft skirt. The rocket is targeted to roll out to Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B on Oct. 19.

The launch will provide NASA with an opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations, while gathering critical data for the Ares I rocket and future launch vehicles.

Source: NASA

5 Replies to “Build the Ares I-X in Less Than Six Minutes”

  1. Awesome video – I love these time lapse videos, they can make anything look cool. And applied to BUILDING ROCKETS it makes it even cooler.

  3. Did any one notice at about 3:15 or so into the video something fell from the upper left into the rocket body!

  4. mastercope, and what about all those guys trapped between segments? Now I know why they call some solid rocket fuel “organically based”. (o.O)

    It’s interesting that you can track engineer cultures in time lapse. I’m reminded of a description of an early Ariane launch (IIRC), when a swedish and a french satellite project shared the same prep facilities. The swedish project had a few engineers and (discounting the different project sizes) finished fairly early. The french project was longer, despite having 40 or so engineers swarming all over, much like this video.

    The difference was based in swedish consensus formation and planning. I wouldn’t knock the bee hive method though, as it is flexible.

    Oh, and no way a swedish project would have a superfluous national flag hanging about! 😉

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