Sunday, October 31, 2010

NASA Lunar - Simulated Crew Module Arrives to Top off Ares IX

NARRATOR: NASA's Constellation Program is a step closer to the first test flight of the vehicle that will send humans on their way to the moon. Hardware that will be used for the test flight of Ares IX was delivered by a C-5 aircraft to Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility in January 2009. The equipment, consisting of a meticulously engineered simulated crew module and launch abort system, was carefully unloaded from the belly of the enormous aircraft. The launch abort system simulator is 46 feet in length and will fit over the crew module and tower above it, forming the nose of the vehicle. Two flatbed trucks transported the hardware to High Bay 4 of Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building. Inside the massive building, workers removed the protective blue cover from the simulated crew module. This hardware and other elements will be integrated into the full-scale Ares IX test launch vehicle. Kennedy's Launch Pad 39B will be the site of the first Ares IX test flight targeted to launch in 2009 -- an important step toward developing Ares I, NASA's next-generation crew launch vehicle.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIA5BysDDpA&hl=en

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