Ares I-X  Ares I-X was the first-stage prototype and design concept demonstrator in the Ares I program, a launch system for human spaceflight developed by the United States space agency, NASA. Ares I-X was successfully launched on October 28, 2009. The project cost was $445 million. The Ares I-X vehicle used in the test flight was similar in shape, mass, and size to the planned configuration of later Ares I vehicles, but had largely dissimilar internal hardware consisting of only one powered stage. Ares I vehicles were intended to launch Orion crew exploration vehicles. Along with the Ares V launch system and the Altair lunar lander, Ares I and Orion were part of NASA's Constellation Program, which was developing the spacecraft for U.S. human spaceflight after the Space Shuttle fleet was retired. Ares I-X was the first test flight of a launch vehicle like the Ares I. The test flight objectives included:  The flight also had several secondary objectives, including:  The Ares I-X closely approximated the flight conditions that the Ares I would expect to experience through Mach 4.5, at an altitude of about 130,000 feet (39,600 m) and through a maximum dynamic pressure (“Max Q”) of approximately 800 pounds per square foot (38 kPa). The Ares I-X flight profile resembled the uncrewed Saturn I flights of the 1960s, which tested the Saturn propulsion concept. By flying the vehicle through first-stage separation, the test flight also verified the performance and dynamics of the Ares I solid rocket booster in a “single stick” arrangement, which is different from the solid rocket booster's then-current “double-booster” configuration alongside the external tank on the space shuttle. The Ares I–X vehicle consisted of a functional four-segment solid rocket booster (SRB) stage, a fifth segment mass simulator, an upper-stage simulator (USS), which was similar in shape and heavier than the actual upper stage, as well as a simulated Orion crew module (CM) and launch abort system (LAS). Since the actual upper-stage hardware could not be produced in time for the flight test, the upper-stage mass simulator allowed the booster to fly approximately the same trajectory through the first stage of flight. The USS and the CM/LAS mass simulators launched by the Ares I-X were not recovered and fell into the Atlantic Ocean. The first stage, including the fifth segment mass simulator, was recovered to retrieve flight data recorders and reusable equipment.