Monday, December 21, 2009

Awesome Ares-1 photos and interactive panorama


One of my friends at NASA sent me this link to an interactive, 3D panorama of the Ares I-X rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. It was shot from ERoof South (maybe that means something to NASA insiders). He reports that the rocket is 327 feet tall, and if you look around you can spot a sign that indicates the height of the shuttle (HINT: the Ares is much taller!)

Along the same lines, here are some images of the Ares on its maiden test flight. I believe they were taken by Todd Hoffman Photography, but I think they are public domain since they were taken under a NASA contract. Here's liftoff:

The photo below shows the early part of the flight. Notice the beautiful shockwave around the upper third of the rocket.