The information contained in this update will cover the major elements of the Ares I rocket and Ares V heavy lifter. This update will provide more information about the hardware being built, component-level tests now under way and the status of major vehicle reviews.

Read the monthly update to stay informed about the Ares launch vehicle fleet. This issue includes information about the following:

+ Ares V design refinements announced (in progress)

+ Ullage settling motor cast (completed)

+ J-2X full scale gas generator testing (in progress)

+ Ares preliminary design reviews (in progress)

+ First stage development (in progress)

+ Drogue parachute testing (July)

+ Refurbishment of Test Stands (in progress)

+ Upper stage panel's production with friction stir welding (July)

Ares V design refinements announced
On June 23, NASA announced a number of design refinements to the Ares V rocket - the result of a nine-month study led by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The new Ares V configuration adds approximately 16 feet to the rocket's planned height, making it 381 feet tall. The heavy lifter will use six RS-68B liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen engines on a core stage and two, five-and-one-half-segment solid propellant rocket boosters.

This combination will permit Ares V to send more than 156,600 pounds of cargo and components into orbit for transport to the moon and later to Mars and other destinations.

"These modifications are a natural evolution of the Ares V concept after three years of work and exhaustive assessment of more than 1,700 concepts," said Steve Cook, manager of Ares Projects at the Marshall Center.

"These changes give us approximately 7 additional metric tons of lift capability ensuring a capable, versatile architecture serving our missions to the moon and beyond."

The current Ares V development phase will culminate in a Systems Requirements Review for NASA's lunar transportation architecture in 2010.

Ullage settling motor cast; testing to begin in August
In June, engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., successfully cast the first ullage settling motor for the Ares I upper stage - a motor also designed and manufactured at the Marshall Center.

The newly designed solid rocket motor will provide a critical function for the Ares I - the first rocket in NASA's Constellation family of next-generation space vehicles - by enabling a smooth transition from first stage engine cutoff, first stage separation and firing of the upper stage motor.

These small solid rocket motors play a key role during launch by ensuring liquid propellants are properly funneled to the bottom of the upper stage fuel tank after first stage separation and prior to J-2X engine ignition.

Without this critical function, the engine could cut off or fail to start. The motors also aid in first stage separation, supplying axial thrust to push the upper stage away from the first stage at the appropriate time.

The Marshall Center plans to test the Ares I ullage settling motor in August.

J-2X full scale gas generator testing continues
The J-2X workhorse gas generator testing began at the Marshall Center in May. To date, 32 tests have been completed. The most recent of these was June 26.

The gas generator test series is an essential development program for the J-2X engine. The gas generator, the driver for the turbopumps, is the start subsystem for the J-2X engine.

This test program is designed to characterize the performance, durability and combustion environment of the J-2X workhorse gas generator, and reduce risk in the design, fabrication and operation of the actual flight hardware.

Engineers continue to collect valuable data from the test series that will be used in the final J-2X designs. Additional tests are planned through September of this year.

Ares Preliminary Design Reviews in progress
First Stage Preliminary Design Review completed: The Ares I First Stage Preliminary Design Review began in late April, and completed documentation review and review item discrepancy submittal. During the first-stage review, NASA provided a board of experts to evaluate the first stage status and recommend concerns to be addressed before the design can move forward. The final board review began at the end of June.

Upper stage begins Preliminary Design Review: The Ares I Upper Stage Element Office conducted its Preliminary Design Review kickoff June 3-6 at the Boeing Conference Center in Huntsville, Ala.

In addition to discussions of review objectives, processes and tools, kickoff participants also received an element overview from Upper Stage Element Office Manager Danny Davis and detailed subsystem overviews from the Upper Stage Integrated Product Leads.

The Marshall Center conducted tours of the Upper Stage Virtual Design Room, Performance, Analysis and Design Demonstrator mockups and the new Robotic Weld Tool for kickoff participants. The Upper Stage Preliminary Design Review will conclude with the board meeting August 5.

Ares I Preliminary Design Review: The Ares I vehicle completed its Preliminary Design Readiness Review June 25. The readiness review provides a checkpoint prior to the actual Preliminary Design Review to ensure the Ares I team is ready to proceed. The Preliminary Design Review is slated to begin July 28. The review is scheduled for completion September 10. At its conclusion, the Ares I design will be set.

J-2X Engine: The team is making excellent progress on the upper stage J-2X engine. Its Critical Design Review is scheduled to begin on September 8 and will conclude November 13.

Friction stir welder for Ares production installed
The massive, vertical friction stir welding tool was installed at the Marshall Center in April. Invented in 1991, friction stir welding uses forging pressure and frictional heating to produce high-strength component bonds virtually free of defects.

For welders, this means the process is dramatically safer - free from flame, sparks and liquid metal. For tomorrow's astronauts, this means the rockets they'll ride to space are made with the latest in manufacturing techniques, fueling a safer journey to orbit and beyond.

The friction stir welding tool at the Marshall Center is the world's first machine of its size capable of building both NASA's Ares I and Ares V rockets. Beginning in August, engineers will begin test welding of gore-gore panels.

In this test, engineers will demonstrate future Ares welding tasks by fusing eight large pie-shaped panels to form a space shuttle external tank's dome. Test welding on hardware to be used on the new Ares I rocket is scheduled to begin later this year.

First stage development continuing at ATK
In May, engineers with the first stage prime contractor, ATK Launch Systems in Brigham City, Utah, cast the first inert, or inactive, motor using the new 12-fin forward casting core for the new five-segment booster. This motor will be used for vehicle ground vibration test of the fully integrated Ares I rocket at the Marshall Center beginning in 2010.

On August 4, ATK engineers will begin casting the first five-segment development motor, a process which should conclude around August 20. The first test firing of the development motor is scheduled to occur in April 2009 at ATK's Promontory Facility in Utah.

The new motor will include all of the upgrades carried over from the four-segment booster used on the space shuttle to Ares I's five-segment reusable solid rocket motor. Upgrades include adding the fifth segment, increasing the size of the nozzle throat and a slight geometry change to the propellant.

The same flight-proven case hardware used in the four-segment shuttle booster will continue to be used in the first stage of Ares I.

Drogue parachute test is a success
The first parachute drop test for the Ares I first stage's new 68-foot-diameter drogue chute was conducted on July 24 at the Yuma Proving Grounds. The drogue was dropped from an Air Force C-17 aircraft at an altitude of 25,000 feet, attached to a 36,000-pound drop test vehicle.

Onboard instrumentation recorded the necessary data to determine the drag area of the parachute and the peak inflation loads as the parachute deploys. The successful test was the first of four planned tests for the drogue parachute.

The drogue parachute is the second chute to be unfurled in a three-stage recovery system NASA is developing for the Ares I rocket's first stage. The integrated chute system includes a pilot, drogue and three main parachutes, and is derived from the space shuttle's solid rocket booster recovery system.

Parachute testing will aid in the design and development of the chute recovery system needed for the Ares I first stage booster. Larger parachutes are required because the Ares I first stage booster travels higher and weighs more than the four-segment shuttle solid rocket booster.

The parachute recovery system will first fly on the Ares I-X test flight in 2009.

Refurbishment of Marshall test stands continues
Engineers began major refurbishment to the Marshall Center's Dynamic Test Stand in March, removing the roof and lowering the 144-foot-high, 71-ton door. Marshall currently is making safety upgrades to the stand, overhauling the 200-ton derrick crane and installing a new electrical power system, restoring the facility to its Apollo-era capabilities in anticipation of full-scale Ares testing beginning in July 2011.

The test program is expected to take approximately one year.

Refurbishment of the Integrated Vehicle Ground Vibration Test Stand and Hydrodynamic Support Stands at Marshall are ongoing.

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