NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Ares I-X Upper Stage Mass Simulator

In 2014, the Orion crew module is scheduled to be launched by an Ares rocket. This new architecture, a component of the Vision for Space Exploration, will replace the space shuttle, carrying humans at first to the International Space Station and later to the moon. The Ares rocket will utilize solid rocket technology similar to that of the shuttle.

In 2009, NASA will launch Ares I-X, a test flight for the new program. NASA's Glenn Research Center is designing and manufacturing several components of the test rocket, including the upper stage mass simulator and the service module and spacecraft adapter simulators.

In this photo, members of the Ares I-X team use an overhead crane to position a super segment assembly stand. The stand is Ground Support Equipment that provides personnel access to multi-segment stacks of the Ares I-X upper stage mass simulator hardware. The segment was moved from the NASA Glenn Research Center's Fabrication Shop, where it was manufactured, to the Power Systems Facility, where it will be used to allow the stacking and developmental flight instrumentation processing on the upper stage simulator segments.