NASA Reveals New Rocket Design
SPACE.COM: NASA unveiled the design of its next heavy-lift launch vehicle in a press conference today (Jan 12) held on Capitol Hill. The new rocket, called Ares II, is the latest manifestation of a wide-ranging reduction in scope for the agency. Nevertheless, the vehicle hopes to support a new generation of American ambitions in space. “We are laying the groundwork for the next chapter of human spaceflight,” NASA administrator Charlie Bolden said at the event. “The programs we are setting in motion today form the building blocks for a fresh path into the solar system, forging new capabilities that will carry us further into the cosmos than ever before.” Designs for Ares II displayed at the presentation depict a vehicle more closely based on NASA’s existing Space Shuttle hardware. Two extended solid rocket boosters support a modified external tank raised strikingly high in the air, in a configuration some have likened to Star Trek’s Starship Enterprise. A pair of shuttle engines mounted