NASA’s Ares I-X test rocket lifted off at 11:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

All told, the flight test lasted about six minutes: the launch from the newly modified Launch Pad 39B, a two-minute powered flight, and then a splashdown of the rocket’s booster stage nearly 150 miles downrange. (more…)

NASA’s  new Ares I-X  test rocket is on the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in preparation for its debut launch scheduled for October 27.

The Ares I-X  is a prototype for the Ares 1 rocket NASA plans to use to launch its shuttle successor, the Orion spacecraft. The flight test will provide NASA with an opportunity to test and prove flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I.

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