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Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama completed first-round testing on Sept. 11, 2008 of a key motor for the next-generation Ares I rocket. The ullage settling motor is a small, solid rocket motor that will assist in vehicle stage separation and provide the forward motion needed to push fuel to the bottom of the fuel tanks during the launch to orbit of the Ares I rocket.

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A full-scale separation test of the forward skirt extension for the Ares I-X flight test took place on January 30th, 2009 at a facility in Promontory, Utah.

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Engineers began major refurbishment to the Marshall Center's Dynamic Test Stand in March 2008, removing the roof and lowering the 144-foot-high, 71-ton door. Marshall currently is making safety upgrades to the stand, overhauling the 200-ton derrick crane and installing a new electrical power system, restoring the facility to its Apollo-era capabilities in anticipation of full-scale Ares testing beginning in July 2011. The test program is expected to take approximately one year.

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Core components of the J-2X engine being designed for NASA's Constellation Program were installed on the A-1 Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi on September 20th, 2007. Tests of the components, known as Powerpack 1A, were conducted from November 2007 through February 2008. The Powerpack 1A test article consists of a gas generator and engine turbopumps originally developed for the Apollo Program that put Americans on the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Engineers are testing these heritage components to obtain data that will help them modify the turbomachinery to meet the higher performance requirements of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles.

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A test of the TEM-13 Solid Rocket Motor for the first stage of the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle of February 15th, 2008 at an ATK faciility in Utah

[DeathPlastic]

Great pics gutts :)

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It's quite cool seeing this side of it all,
never seen them test the rockets before

[DeathPlastic]

offtopic but...i'll jus leave this here xDD

When NASA was preparing for the Apollo Project, it took the astronauts to a Navajo reservation in Arizona for training.

One day, a Navajo elder and his son came across the space crew walking among the rocks.

The elder, who spoke only Navajo, asked a question.

His son translated for the NASA people: "What are these guys in the big suits doing?"

One of the astronauts said that they were practicing for a trip to the moon.

When his son relayed this comment the Navajo elder got all excited and asked if it would be possible to give
to the astronauts a message to deliver to the moon.

Recognizing a promotional opportunity when he saw one, a NASA official accompanying the astronauts
said, "Why certainly!" and told an underling to get a tape recorder.

The Navajo elder's comments into the microphone were brief. The NASA official asked the son if he would translate what his father had said.

The son listened to the recording and laughed uproariously. But he refused to translate. So the NASA people took the tape to a nearby Navajo village and played it for other members of the tribe. They too laughed long and loudly but also refused to translate the elder's message to the moon.
Finally, an official government translator was summoned. After he finally stopped laughing
the translator relayed the message:

"Watch out for these assholes. They have come to steal your land."

[güttsfükk]

that should go into the funny joke section