NASA launches Ares-I

NASA successfully launched the Ares I-X experimental rocket last Wednesday, in one of the first steps toward the replacement of the aging American space shuttle fleet. Designed by defense contractor Lockheed Martin, the launch marks the first launch of a completely new spacecraft since that of the space shuttle in 1981.

Approximately 327 feet tall and 1.8 million pounds, the Ares I-X rocket is a crucial part of NASA’s Constellation program. The program seeks to replace space shuttles with next generation spacecrafts, like the Ares I-X rocket, capable of bringing astronauts to the Moon and Mars.

During the $445 million launch, the rocket carried more than 700 sensors that measured vital launch statistics.

"Ares I-X provides NASA with an enormous amount of data that will be used to improve the design and safety of the next generation of American spaceflight vehicles -- vehicles that could again take humans beyond low Earth orbit," said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, in a prepared statement.

However, the rocket was slightly damaged when two of the three parachutes failed to deploy and slow the fall of the rocket back to Earth.

NASA’s Constellation Program, which was created in response to former President George Bush’s plan to return American astronauts to the Moon by 2020, has already spent $8 billion developing spacecraft to replace the space shuttle fleet. The space agency plans to spend at least another $92 billion by 2020, according to USA Today.

However, analysts argue that the Constellation Program is flawed and too expensive.

In an interview with CBS News, John Logsdon, a space policy analyst at George Washington University and a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, said, "I think there is little doubt that we're going to depend on what people are calling commercial providers to be the transport system for crew to station as soon as they're ready".

The US Human Spaceflight Plans Committee, an independent panel of space experts commissioned by the White House, recently reported that NASA would need an extra $3- 6 billion annually to pursue manned missions.

President Obama is set to review NASA’s $18.7 billion budget at the end of this year.

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