Article Posted on : - Oct 28, 2009

The Ares I-X at its launch pad. Image credit: NASA

CAPE CANAVERAL (AFP/PTI): NASA has delayed until Wednesday attempts to test a prototype rocket designed to return astronauts to the Moon, and perhaps one day send them to Mars.

After a series of delays due to the weather, the launch of the Ares I-X from Cape Canaveral in Florida was abandoned for the day and officials said they would try again in a four-hour window from 8:00 am (1200 GMT) Wednesday.

“Overall, the weather will improve,” a NASA official said after Tuesday’s efforts were called off.

The Ares I-X is the prototype for the Ares I, a booster vehicle intended to launch mission crews into orbit in the Orion spacecraft, which is still under development.

NASA hopes to have the Ares in service by 2015, which would still leave a five-year gap in its human spaceflight programme as its ageing space shuttle fleet is due to be mothballed next year.

During the two-minute test flight NASA aims to gather data from more than 700 sensors placed along the rocket that should enable engineers to fine-tune their design.

Fifteen stories taller than the shuttle, the 327-foot Ares is the longest rocket ever built.

Ares and Orion are part of Constellation, NASA's grand programme to send astronauts back to the Moon by 2020, and then on to Mars and other destinations.