Today, on CNN, there was news that NASA had launched the new Ares I-X rocket. They had tried to launch it before but the weather was not good so they had to postpone the launch until today at 11:30 ET. One of the main purposes of the lauch is to try out 3 massive parachutes that will be part of the deceleration system of the shuttle. This means that when the two parts of the shuttle separate, parachutes will extend and that the motor will slowly and softly fall into the ocean.

This rocket which still doesn´t have a name, is part of a program that has been working on new vehicles that will take the place of the shuttles that NASA uses because the shuttles are outdated. It is called the Constellation Program.

If everything goes well, the Orion capsule which goes at the top of the Ares rocket, won´t be able to take any austronauts until five years from now, in 2015. So, the USA won´t be able to send people up into space for those five years.

This launch was really important because right now, President Obama is looking for money for NASA because they don´t have enough money for their investigations.