Ares has lift-off

Left: A Nasa photograph of the upper stage of Ares 1-X in the Vehicle Assembly Building's High Bay 3 at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral. Right: Part of the Ares 1-X rocket is carried to the Vehicle Assembly Building. This flight was intended to test Ares' four-segment solid rocket motor (the 'first stage'), its separation from the dummy upper stage, and the process of recovering the first stage, which was supposed to parachute down into the ocean.