Divers Find Large Dent in ARES I-X First Stage

The divers that were sent out to prepare the spent first stage of NASA's new ARES I-X test rocket for extraction from the Atlantic Ocean revealed that the base of the massive rocket had a huge dent in it. At this point, experts at the space agency haven't got a clue as to what may have caused the damage. The prototype rocket flew on Wednesday, during a short, suborbital flight, meant to test ground operations, flight procedures, and test-stage separation, associated with NASA's new family of rockets.

ARES I-X was made up of two stages. The first one featured five segments, of which four were live, and one was a dummy. The other stage was entirely fake, and featured the same weight and disposition as the upper stage of the future ARES I rocket. It also simulated the shape and weight of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, which is the space agency's new method of getting people to the Moon by 2020. After the separation between the two stages, the second one crashed into the ocean, and then sank as planned.

The first one, however, was due to be recovered by a specialized NASA vessel, so that experts could analyze the effects that the flight had on its structural integrity. The first stage was scheduled to fall into the ocean guided by a set of three parachutes, and then await recovery. Divers were then to enter the water, and start pumping in air from the exterior, so as to make the massive piece of rocket float. They would then pull it as close to the Kennedy Space Center as possible, on the Florida coast.

“The booster comes back in tomorrow. So until that point, everything is probably speculation,” Mike Moses, who is the shuttle integration manager, said yesterday. Speaking about the factors that might have triggered the damage on the ARES I-X segments, Bill Gerstenmaier, the NASA space operations chief, added that the new parachute guidance system “is a totally different system than ours. There's been no tie at all between what Ares has got and what we've got.”

According to the new rocket's technical specifications, ARES I-X is a lot heavier than shuttle boosters, and also features completely new parachute systems. While the boosters for the shuttles have only two parachutes, the ARES first stage is initially guided in the correct descent position by a drogue parachute, which then deploys three main chutes, as soon as all the position requirements are set, Space reports.