ARES 1-X Rollout

For the past 6 years, NASA has been working to phase out the Space Shuttle and shut down the Shuttle program (I mean, the thing is over 25 yrs old! That's ridiculously old for any spacecraft, especially with the continual launch / reentry stresses). So anyway, the replacement for the Shuttle is the Ares rocket. NASA just rolled the Ares out to the pad for the first time last night - in prep for a scheduled 27 Oct launch. This will be the first launch, and it will be used as an experimental, sub-orbital launch to gather data. Which is important, considering the plan is to launch astronauts with this puppy eventually.

Anyway, now that all that geek is done - check out these sweet pics!

Little bit different than the Shuttle, eh? This one is more similar to the Saturn than the Shuttle.