NASA engineers on Wednesday were touting the latest stepping stone in their effort to build a rocket to return astronauts to the moon. The agency announced that the Ares 1 rocket, part of the Constellation program, had passed a preliminary design review. “This is a critical step for development of the Ares I rocket,” said Rick Gilbrech, associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington. [Nasa press release]

But according to the AP, the program left one engineering issue hanging: how to deal with resonant shaking during the launch. Critics have used the issue as a way to call the entire design into question, though NASA engineers say they have a satisfactory solution. That issue will be reviewed next year.

The next major milestone will be a critical design review in 2011. A bigger issue is whether the Ares rockets will get the money they need to be built. NASA had been counting on paying for the rockets with the $3 billion spent every year on the Space Shuttle, due for retirement in 2010. But US tensions with Russia, which will be responsible for ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station, has some representatives in Congress arguing vehemently for extending the costly shuttle program.

Image: NASA