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NASA's Ares 1 To Be Reborn As the Liberty Commercial Launcher

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the burninate-the-peasants dept.

MarkWhittington writes "When President Barack Obama canceled the Constellation space exploration program, it was thought the Ares 1, the much-maligned planned rocket that would have launched the Orion into low Earth orbit, was dead and gone. However, it looks like ATK, the aerospace firm that manufactures solid rocket boosters for NASA, has entered into a joint venture with Astrium, the European firm that builds the Ariane V to build a commercial version of the Ares 1."

1 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. No. by Silm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, just No.

    This rocket can be described in a few words: it is a desperate attempt from ATK to find a possible justification for their 5- segment booster.
    That is all. There is no technical merit for this rocket.
    I can guess the design process went like this:
      "Hey, We need an upper stage for our 5 segment booster!"
    "How about that Ariane 5 center ( ! ) stage?"
    "Sure!"

    The press release is an exercise in PR. Flexible, Commercial, hell, the name is LIBERTY!
    There are a few things that make this rocket BAD.

    The Vulcain engine is not air startable. They will have to fix this; it is not clear how much this will cost
    You don't want a Solid rocket engine for manned launches. They are not able to do a hold down test before launch. Once it is lit, you are going, whether it is working or not.
    With this rocket, there is once again no Horizontal stacking.
    It lifts less than just the ariane 5 as it is RIGHT NOW!
    The Ariane center stage will have to be radically altered - right now it is build for bearing the load of boosters on its sides. Now it will be pushed up?

    Really, this is ATK lobbying and marketing. It is just not efficient, safe or even a good idea.
    If NASA adopts this it will be because of the ATK lobbying lawmakers, not because of technical merit. Because it just has less merit than anything else currently being discussed. They want a piece of the pie, and they will ask for a bigger piece of it while paying less for it then other ideas being discussed.

    All in all, I hope this bombs hard.