The National Aeronautics and Space Administration this week sent one of the world’s tallest rockets into space in a key test of the launch vehicle slated to return astronauts to the moon. The 327-foot-tall Ares 1-X rocket, part of the Constellation program that will replace the space shuttle fleet, blasted off from Cape Canaveral on a two-minute flight that carried it 30 miles above the Earth.
The launch comes as NASA and Congress await President Obama’s request on funding for the agency. If the Constellation program is adequately financed, NASA officials say they will be ready to launch a moon mission in 2015. That will leave a five-year gap in manned missions; the shuttle program is slated to end next year.
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