NASA \ United Space Alliance
Ares I-X Prototype Launch Vehicle
Ares I-X Prototype Launch Vehicle
Lead Vehicle Integration Engineer
Cross-Program Signal Interface Coordination
Interface Control Across Agencies
Team leadership
Launch-Day Systems Engineer
Project Overview / MIssion Objectives
Ares I-X was the first—and only—test flight of NASA’s proposed Ares I crew launch vehicle, part of the now-retired Constellation Program. Launched in 2009, it tested the dynamic performance of a full-scale launch stack, including a solid rocket booster, inert upper stage, and prototype crew module and launch abort system.
The vehicle was a Frankenstein’s monster of legacy Shuttle components, new avionics, and experimental structures. But despite its patchwork nature, Ares I-X had one goal: prove that a tall, skinny rocket could fly straight, safely separate, and return useful data about control dynamics and system interfaces.
With only one shot to get it right, the mission demanded extreme coordination, fast-paced integration, and bulletproof interface engineering between dozens of disparate subsystems—many of which had never flown together.
Roles and Responsibilities
I served as the Lead Vehicle Integration Engineer for critical electrical systems and real-time ground-to-flight interfaces on Ares I-X. My primary responsibility was to ensure that the various subsystems—from legacy Shuttle components to new avionics and sensors—could talk to each other, power up properly, and survive liftoff.
I coordinated across NASA, Lockheed Martin, and multiple contractor teams to trace signal paths, resolve power conflicts, and validate separation triggers in a tightly compressed timeline. My role also extended to real-time launch operations, where I supported vehicle checkout, countdown procedures, and anomaly resolution on the pad.
This was integration in its rawest, most urgent form: no redundancy, no margin for guesswork, and no second flight.
Legacy
Though Ares I-X was ultimately a one-off flight, it provided critical data on flight dynamics, structural loads, and guidance control that informed NASA’s later exploration vehicles—including Orion and SLS.
It was also a proving ground for me personally. The vehicle was cobbled together from different programs, different decades, and different documentation cultures. Making it fly required not just engineering skill, but synthesis, translation, and sheer determination. I carry that systems-level fluency with me still.
Highlight: Real-Time Systems Readiness
I was helping oversee final system bring-up and coordinating live telemetry checks across vehicle segments. We had only a narrow window to verify that all electrical and sensor interfaces were green.
Key contributions included:
Conducting final signal path verification for stage separation logic
Supporting troubleshooting on communications loss between the booster and avionics pod
Validating power-on sequencing to prevent brownout conditions during pad operations
Coordinating across the NASA Test Director console to resolve last-minute ground umbilical anomalies
The vehicle flew straight and true—because behind the scenes, we sweated every connection.