CLEVELAND – Reporters are invited to NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Thursday, March 13 at 11 a.m. EDT to view a full-scale element of NASA’s Ares I-X rocket. The test launch and flight of the Ares I-X in April 2009 is a critical milestone in the development of NASA’s Constellation Program that will send astronauts back to the moon.
Reporters will be able to see and climb inside the 18-foot wide, 45-foot tall simulation of the Ares I upper stage, which was designed and manufactured at Glenn. The simulated element represents the size, outer shape and mass of the second stage of the Ares I rocket. Media also will receive an update of NASA’s Ares I-X Project and a tour of Glenn’s Fabrication Shop.
The full scale upper stage element will be tested and have instrumentation installed before it is integrated with the other parts of the Ares I-X vehicle for the test flight. The finished elements also represent the completion of the first manufacturing activity at Glenn of a full-scale launch vehicle demonstrator in two decades.
Glenn’s director, Woodrow Whitlow, Jr., will participate in the briefing and be joined by Vince Bilardo, project manager for the Ares I-X elements at Glenn and Therese Griebel, chief of Glenn’s Manufacturing Technologies Division.
Media wishing to attend this event should contact Katherine Martin at 216-433-2901 by 4:30 p.m. on March 12. For more information about Ares I-X work at Glenn, visit:.
http://spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/LaunchSystems/Simulator/
For more information about NASA’s Constellation Program, visit:
