re: Will the 'Dog' bark?
We are a few months from the Ares 1 - X test.
This isn't an Ares 1. It's a dumb upper stage mass simulator. It doesn't have Orion. It doesn't have the full 5 segment booster. As a result, it isn't a particularly high fidelity test.
We are many many years from a proper Ares 1 launch, if it's allowed to carry on.
