The booster used on the Ares 1-X test rocket on Wednesday was damaged when it fell back into the ocean, the US space agency (Nasa) says. The recovery team sent to retrieve the stage from waters east of the Kennedy Space Centre found a large dent in the side of the booster. Nasa said the damage resulted from failures in the parachute system.
Two of three parachutes malfunctioned in the test flight of a prototype moon rocket earlier this week, causing major damage to the booster, NASA said Friday. The problem caused the Ares I-X booster to slam into the Atlantic Ocean harder than expected. The booster was badly dented by the impact. Read more
NASA's Ares I-X Rocket Completes Successful Flight Test NASA's Ares I-X test rocket lifted off at 11:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida for a two-minute powered flight. The test flight lasted about six minutes from its launch from the newly-modified Launch Complex 39B until splash down of the rocket's booster stage nearly 150 miles down range.