NASA eClips: Preparing to Launch Ares 1-X Real World: Preparing
to Launch Ares I-X--- Now PlayingPreparing for future space
missions, NASA is testing the Ares rockets prototype, Ares I-X.
By finding the vehicles center of gravity, engineers can
calculate the exact mass of the vehicle. The forces felt by the
astronauts during launch are similar. Ares I-X Completes a
Successful Flight Test NASA's Ares I-X test rocket lifted off
Oct. 28, 2009, at 11:30 a.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center in
Florida for a two-minute powered flight. The flight test lasted
about six minutes from its launch from the newly modified Launch
Complex 39B until splashdown of the rocket's booster stage
nearly 150 miles downrange. The 327-foot-tall Ares I-X test
vehicle produced 2.6 million pounds of thrust to accelerate the
rocket to nearly 3 g's and Mach 4.76, just shy of hypersonic
speed. It capped its easterly flight at a suborbital altitude of
150,000 feet after the separation of its first stage, a four-
segment solid rocket booster. Par