Peep Tim in Houston hooking up the NASA drop.

The Ares 1X rocket is assembled in the VAB. The stacking of five major segments began July 30 with placing the SuperStack (including the interstage and the first stage forward assemblies) on top of the First Stage Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM). The final section, consisting of the Crew Module/Launch Abort System, was stacked onto the vehicle on August 13. The 1X team is one step closer to the October 31 test flight.

More After the Jump…..

The Postlanding Orion Recovery Test article is back from KSC and the Naval Carderock facility where is was used for water towing and motion testing. The full scale Orion model is now in the NBL(Neutral Buoyancy Lab, Houston,TX). The NBL team lead by project manager John Haas will be redesigning and retrofitting the test article for further testing and evaluation. This retrofitting of the PORT capsule will occur over the next 9 months by DX.

I can’t ever get enough of this… Pretty much geeking out.