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First Aries I - Orion CEV Suborbital Test Launch

Damn. If it weren't for this freaking swim phys, I'd make the drive down tomorrow.
 
Rocket fired.... ballistics happened. Sorry, no drama.

What was especially fun to watch was how excited the launch team was afterwards. It's been a while since we've shot a new man-rated rocket. Now we have to wait four years for Ares I-Y.... sigh.

Edit: OK watching the re-plays, I'm a little curious. Maybe someone really knows their rockets here. Just as they were passing through the Mach (as shown by the vapor rings), the guy said the chamber pressure was decreasing as designed. I understand they might want to decrease chamber pressure and thrust passing through max-q, but how do they design a solid rocket motor to do that?
 
Beans said:
Rocket fired.... ballistics happened. Sorry, no drama.

What was especially fun to watch was how excited the launch team was afterwards. It's been a while since we've shot a new man-rated rocket. Now we have to wait four years for Ares I-Y.... sigh.

Edit: OK watching the re-plays, I'm a little curious. Maybe someone really knows their rockets here. Just as they were passing through the Mach (as shown by the vapor rings), the guy said the chamber pressure was decreasing as designed. I understand they might want to decrease chamber pressure and thrust passing through max-q, but how do they design a solid rocket motor to do that?
Click to expand...

Solid fuel rockets can be designed with specific patterns to affect the surface area being burned. More area = more burn = more thrust. Create a shape that decreases the area at a certain time and you'll decrease the thrust and all that with it.
 
The 3 second bite I saw on the news this morning showed a rocket casing tumbling down, so I had no idea how it turned out. Good times.
 
a2b2c3 said:
Solid fuel rockets can be designed with specific patterns to affect the surface area being burned. More area = more burn = more thrust. Create a shape that decreases the area at a certain time and you'll decrease the thrust and all that with it.
Click to expand...

A picture is worth a thousand words, this should explain it...

fig1-14.gif

​
 
Calculon said:
Hard to believe this is like NASA's first new rocket launch in nearly 30 years
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How can anyone NOT be excited to pieces about this? The end state of this is going back to the MOON. Maybe I'm just geeking out a bit, but this is something that should be applauded and looked at with great pride.

We're going back to the moon, people. Get excited.
 
desertoasis said:
How can anyone NOT be excited to pieces about this? The end state of this is going back to the MOON. Maybe I'm just geeking out a bit, but this is something that should be applauded and looked at with great pride.

We're going back to the moon, people. Get excited.
Click to expand...

Oh I am excited. But I'm also saddened at the fact that we went to the moon in the 1960's and have put aside so much of what we have learned that we have forgotten most of it. From the Kennedy speech to the first moon landing was seven years.

Bush made his speech in 2004 with the goal of reaching the moon in 2020. Sixteen fracken years. With all we've learned and are capable of doing it sad to see that we've lost so much along the way.
 
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