Ares I-X suborbital test flight

10/28/09 ~ 11:30 a.m.

The first (and only, it would turn out) Ares I rocket, Ares I-X, soared on its 2 minute, 4 second suborbital test flight at 11:30 a.m. on October 28, 2009. Standing 327 feet tall and third in rocket height only to the Saturn V and N-1 moon rockets of the early days (as of 2009), Ares I was at the time planned to be the United States' next crewed space vehicle after retirement of the space shuttle, and would have consisted of a five-segment version of a shuttle Solid Rocket Booster with an upper stage and Orion capsule on top.

For the Ares I-X test mission, only four segments were active (same as the shuttle) while a dummy fifth segment sat on top. After SRB burnout at 2 min 4 sec, the SRB separated and parachuted into the Atlantic while the dummy second stage and fake Orion capsule with Launch Escape System plummeted to ocean below. Below, shuttle Atlantis can be seen on Pad 39A 1.5 miles south as it prepares for launch on STS-129.