The drama over NASA’s future continues. Just a few days after the Augustine commission delivered a report that puts the agency’s new moon rockets in doubt, Alliant Techsystems conducted an Earth-rattling test of the booster that would power one of those rockets, known as the Ares 1. The ground test of the five stage booster, which spewed the exhaust of 1.4 million pounds of fuel across the Utah desert, is a prelude to the Ares 1-X flight test that is supposed to go up this autumn. In the wake of the Augustine report, which said that the Ares 1 plan is dead without more money, former NASA administrator Mike Griffin sent around an impassioned email, exhorting leaders to give credit to the actual hardware that’s being built for Ares 1. Its “technical problems are on display because actual work is being accomplished, whereas other options have no problems because no work is being done,” Griffin wrote.

Image: NASA, Walt Lindblom