NASA’s latest moon rocket makes successful first test flight

NASA’s newest rocket successfully completed a brief test flight yesterday, taking the first step in a back-to-the-moon programme that could yet be shelved by the White House.

The 327-foot Ares I-X rocket resembled a giant white pencil as it shot into the sky, delayed a day by poor weather.

Nearly twice the height of the spaceship it’s supposed to replace — the shuttle — the skinny experimental rocket carried no passengers or payload, only throwaway ballast and hundreds of sensors. The flight cost $445 million.

NASA said the flight was a success, based on early indications.

“Oh, man. Well, how impressive is that,” said Jeff Hanley, manager of NASA’s space frontier programme, known as Constellation.

“You’ve accomplished a great step forward for exploration,” he told launch controllers.

It was the first time in nearly 30 years that a new rocket took off from Kennedy Space Centre. Columbia made the maiden voyage for the shuttle fleet back in 1981.

Lift-off, in fact, occurred 48 years and one day after the first launch of a Saturn rocket, a precursor to what carried astronauts to the moon during the Apollo programme. The Saturn V moon rockets were the tallest ever built, an impressive 363 feet.

Yesterday’s launch, years in the making, attracted a large crowd.

The prototype moon rocket took off through a few clouds from a former shuttle launch pad at 11.30am, 3½ hours late because of bad weather. Launch controllers had to retest the rocket systems after more than 150 lightning strikes were reported around the pad overnight.

The ballistic flight did not come close to reaching space and, as expected, lasted a mere two minutes. That’s how long it took for the first-stage solid-fuel booster to burn out and separate from the mock upper stage 25 miles up. But it will take months to analyse all the data from the approximately 725 pressure, strain and acceleration sensors.

Parachutes popped open and dropped the booster into the Atlantic, where recovery ships waited.

The upper portion of the rocket — all fake parts — were hurtled to an estimated altitude of 28 miles and then fell uncontrolled into the ocean.

The launch represented the first step in NASA’s effort to return astronauts to the moon. The White House, though, is re-evaluating the human spaceflight programme and may dump the Ares I for another rocket type and possibly another destination.