Officials: NASA's Newest Rocket Ready To Fly

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - WESH.com

It's all systems go for NASA's newest rocket.

Officials have declared the Ares 1X ready to fly on Tuesday morning.

The Ares carries a million pounds of explosive fuel and is as tall as a football field is long. It has never been launched before, officials said.

Experts described the Ares as a space shuttle booster rocket, which they said has a good safety record across 128 shuttle launches. They however noted that the risk of disaster is always greater with an untried rocket.

Many years ago, a new rocket went off course and a part of it landed a few hundred yards offshore of a trailer park, narrowly missing people.

Engineers said they have improved the destruct system on the rocket, which gives them a way to deliberately destroy Ares if it goes off course.

The Ares is expected to be launched near the space shuttle Atlantis. Experts said that if the rocket should explode, it could wipe out the shuttle and moon programs in one blow. Officials however said there is only a one-in-10,000 chance of that happening.

Officials said they expect a successful mission to prove that NASA is on its way to perfecting a moon rocket amid accusations that the program is too expensive and way behind schedule.

Liftoff is set for 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Viewers can watch the launch live on WESH 2 News.

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