The Week in Space History- October 28th to November 3rd.

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Ares I-X

On October 28th, 2009, the Ares I-X lifted off of Pad 39B for the first and only time.

This slender, 327-foot-tall rocket, utilized a modified Solid Rocket Booster from the Shuttle program as its first stage. Its upper stage was inert, filled with ballast and instrumentation.

NASA called this launch “the first flight of a new era.” Well, that wasn’t the case.

The Ares I and V launch vehicles were part of NASA’s ill-fated Constellation program that was canceled when President Obama proposed a new NASA budget in the early years of his administration.

Originally, Ares, I was meant to be a human-rated rocket that could carry a crew into space in an Orion spacecraft to meet up with the proposed Altair lunar lander or International Space Station. The Ares V was a cargo capable rocket that was supposed to carry 143,000 pounds…