By Marina Malenic
PROMONTORY, Utah–As uncertainty over the future of its ambitious Constellation program grows, NASA yesterday aborted a horizontal ground-firing test of a key program element–the first stage of the Ares I moon rocket–due to a malfunction of a hydraulic system component.
“This test is really important to the program, and it is very rare for the system to have such a problem,” Charlie Precourt, vice president for space launch systems at Ares I first stage prime contractor ATK, said during a press conference following the failed firing.
Constellation, a space-shuttle replacement effort intended to carry astronauts to the moon by 2020, for now includes the Ares I launch vehicle and Orion capsule, as well as the longer-term Ares V heavy-lift rocket and Altair lunar lander. ATK [ATK] is the prime contractor for the Ares I first stage, Boeing [BA] is developing the Ares I upper stage, and Lockheed Martin [LMT] is developing Orion.
The thrust vector control system that directs the Ares fuel nozzle yesterday experienced an “anomaly,” according to NASA’s chief engineer for the program, Pat Lampton.
“The fuel did not get to the auxiliary power unit, or APU,” Lampton explained. “One of its valves failed to operate, failed to flow fuel.”
NASA Ares first stage manager Alex Priskos added that the root cause of the malfunction remains unknown. He said engineers would study the problem through the night and reschedule the test as soon as possible.
Officials here said that the test could be rescheduled as early as today if the malfunction is found to be minor.
The main purpose of yesterday’s test, according to Priskos, was to test the performance of the rocket motor itself.
“And we will do that as soon as possible,” he said.
NASA and ATK officials said that it remains unclear how an Oct. 31 planned Ares I-X launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando will be affected by the failure. Yesterday’s firing was to have been the first in a series of seven tests.
With over 500 spectators looking on, ATK terminated the test with just 20 seconds remaining on a countdown clock.
More than 600 sensors had been set up to collect data for the space agency and prime contractor ATK from yesterday’s canceled test-firing. Officials said they had 46 informational objectives in the $75 million test.
Earlier this week, a blue-ribbon commission’s report on NASA’s future, which is expected to treat the viability of the Constellation program with skepticism, was delayed by about two weeks. The Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee’s report, to be authored by a panel led by retired Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine, is now to be released in its entirety at the end of September, according to officials.
The $108 billion program to return to the moon by 2020 was started five years ago by President George W. Bush. The Augustine commission, however, has concluded that the program will cost at least an extra $30 billion through 2020.
The White House instructed the panel to stay within current budget projections when formulating fresh options.
The report is expected to lay out the same four overarching options that Augustine panel members decided on during a public hearing on Aug. 12. The options that fit the current budget call for: keeping parts of the current Constellation program in place, while removing portions of it and delaying timelines to fit the administration’s planned budget; or using an “Ares V Lite” government-launch system and a commercial setup for carrying crew to low-Earth orbit. The options that exceed NASA’s budget also entail: using a shuttle- derived government-launch system and carrying crew to low-Earth orbit by a commercial setup; or using a commercial setup to carry crew to low-Earth orbit and then employing for a launch system either an “Ares V Lite” booster, a shuttle-derived rocket, or a commercial rocket that could be a commercial version of the Pentagon’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) (Defense Daily, Aug. 25).