Will we ever get to the Moon?

The skinny rocket, towering 327 feet, is the tallest to sit on a launching pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida since the 363-foot Saturn V rockets used for the moon landings in the 1960s and 1970s.
Critics of the Ares I, which is part of NASA’s Constellation program intended to return astronauts to the Moon by 2020, have described it as too expensive, underpowered and technically flawed. The biggest problem with the Ares I, however, is that it might be too late.

SHOOT: This test rocket won't even go as far as Earth orbit.

clipped from www.nytimes.com The first flight in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s program to build a next-generation rocket to replace the space shuttle could also be the swan song. The launching of the Ares I-X, a prototype, is scheduled for 8 a.m. Tuesday. It comes less than a week after a blue-ribbon panel reviewing NASA’s human spaceflight program released its final report, which offers a less-than-ringing endorsement of the Ares I rocket and brings the entire program into question. Most of the options explored by the panel look to alternatives from commercial companies to carry astronauts into Earth orbit. The $450 million Ares I-X is almost the same size and shape as the planned Ares I, but with a less powerful first stage and a dummy second stage. The test flight will carry 700 sensors to measure stress, temperature, vibrations and other data that will give engineers a chance to validate and tweak their designs.