Space, the final frontier. It will be final if NASA don’t get their act together! The announcement that the Constellation project had dropped some two years behind its initial launch date, from 2013 to 2015, brought tears to my eyes. Me! A grown man and my father a butcher! Yes, I’m a huge span of all things space and all things based (however loosely) on space. I have a full size model of Princess Leia in my bedroom.

Other news that did pique my interest was related to the Constellation project, too (honestly there’s not much else that NASA are doing at the moment, so that’s not too surprising). This news was relating to the Ares I rocket that will power the Orbit shuttle and all the related equipment high into the dark space. The Ares rocket will eventually detach from the shuttle vehicle, but it is essential to get the whole thing out of the gravitational pull of the Earth.

The news was that the Ares design had successfully undergone initial testing. This doesn’t mean a great deal as far as progress goes because it’s an iterative process that is likely to continue until just before the launch date in 2015. It is, at least, confirmation that the Constellation project – and Ares in particular – is moving forward in earnest.