The testing regime to be undergone by NASA’s Ares rocket is a time consuming one. Initial testing was completed successfully recently: this is the first round in an iterative testing regime that will take us right up to the day of its launch in 2015. Unlike cars, rockets like Ares cannot simply be recalled if there is a fault. There is no way to ‘test’ the final product without sending it up into the sky. The day of its introduction to society will be the moment of truth.

It is imperative then that the Ares team take all possible precautions, pouring over designs and testing individually manufactured parts before they are included in the final build. The team must do as much as possible towards testing as much of the Ares design and manufacture simply for the sake of those poor souls that are destined to be fired on the back of a large bomb into cold, dark space. Those brave souls in the Orbit shuttle that is powered by the Ares rocket that risk so much for the sake of furthering our meager knowledge.

The Ares I rocket and Orbit shuttle are all part and parcel of NASA’s Constellation project.