Is NASA thumbing nose at Augustine Committee with test launch?

NASA rolled the Ares 1-X out for a trial launch, scheduled for next week, just days before a final report examining the financial feasibility of manned space travel was due to be issued.

On October 20, NASA very carefully rolled out the Ares 1-X with a planned test flight scheduled for October 27. The launch will take place between 8 am and noon, during which time the needle-like demonstration rocket will be sent about 25 miles above the earth. However, the future of the rocket is uncertain after an independent review looking into funding was launched by the Obama administration earlier this year. An early recommendation was to scrub the Ares rocket. Next week's unmanned test, said NASA,

"... will bring NASA one step closer to its exploration goals -- to return to the moon for more ambitious exploration of the lunar surface and to travel to Mars and destinations beyond."

After India successfully sent a rocket to the moon, announcing that the country will be developing a manned space exploration program, it might seem like NASA has a good case of rocket envy. But the Ares rocket is part of a program that goes back to 2003. The Ares 1-X is a new design for NASA, the first new design in at least 30 years. The "... next-generation spacecraft and launch vehicle system" will be used to launch people to the space station or the moon starting in 2016. The spacecraft is part of a plan created during the George W. Bush years but has since come under criticism, and President Obama had asked for an independent review of the plans to put humans into space. The Augustine Committee's final report on that review is scheduled to be released at 1 pm on October 22. With the preliminary report from the Augustine Committee saying NASA needs $3 billion more a year in funding to make manned space flight "sustainable," today's highly anticipated report has NASA's Constellation program's future, which includes the Ares rocket, hanging by a thread. The preliminary report recommended scrapping the Ares rocket, although the committee has not ruled out human space flight. The Augustine Committee (also known as the Review of US Human Space Flight Plans Committee) defined the scope of the review by saying

"... The nation is facing important decisions on the future of human spaceflight. Will we leave the close proximity of low-Earth orbit, where astronauts have circled since 1972, and explore the solar system, charting a path for the eventual expansion of human civilization into space? If so, how will we ensure that our exploration delivers the greatest benefit to the nation? Can we explore with reasonable assurances of human safety? And, can the nation marshal the resources to embark on the mission?"

The committee is headed up by Norm Augustine who once was the CEO of Lockheed Martin. The committee findings will be non-binding recommendations, but even so, some Americans are gearing up for a fight to protect the Constellation program. NASA recently sent an exploratory rocket smashing into a crater on the south pole of the moon, followed by a data gathering rocket, hoping to find ice crystals. NASA asked for $18.686 billion for 2010.