Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — NASA’s new moon rocket passed a key design milestone late Wednesday.
Senior NASA management unanimously approved the preliminary design review of the planned Ares I rocket that would launch astronauts into space by 2015 and back to the moon by 2020. But next year there will be another narrowly focused “delta” preliminary design review for one pending engineering issue — too much shaking after launch.
This is the first preliminary design review approval for a rocket that carries astronauts since 1973, when the space shuttle passed the same stage, said Steve Cook, NASA’s Ares projects manager.
