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The final decision to scrub the launch on Tuesday was due to bad weather, as stated by NASA's weather officer on the launch team.
The flight was hindered throughout the morning by worsening weather at the Florida launch site.
Weather Officer Kathy Winters continued to update the launch team on weather conditions at and near the launch pad. But, her forecasts didn't look very good throughout the morning.
Other difficulties also included a stuck 5-hole probe cover on the top of the rocket and a freighter traveling through the restricted zone downrange of the launch site.
The launch was finally called off for the day at 11:20 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) due to a storm rolling into the area, which would have been overhead the launch pad at the time of liftoff. Wind conditions were also not acceptable for the launch.
The rocket is positioned at launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, off the eastern coast of Florida.
In addition, an attempt to remove a five-hole probe cover from the top of the rocket during the countdown was unsuccessful for several minutes.
The cover became stuck, even though numerous practices tries had never seen this problem occur.
Although the problem would not hinder the safety of the mission, controllers were relieved (and applauded) when the cover finally slipped off the top of the rocket.
Page two talks about a problem with a freighter in restricted waters, along with further updates to be posted by NASA about future attempts to launch the Ares 1-X flight.
In addition, at about 9:35 a.m. EDT, the flight director was contacted by his range safety controller that a freighter was in the restricted waters around the launch pad and downrange from it.
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Further updates on later tries to launch the test rocket, possibly tomorrow, are found on the NASA website "Latest Ares 1-X Launch News."
The first test flight of the Ares 1-X rocket would have lasted approximately two minutes.
During the test, the flight profile of the Ares 1-X test rocket will approximate the flight conditions used by the operational Ares 1 rocket.
Ares 1-X will experience speeds up to Mach 4.5 when at an altitude of about 39,600 meters (around 130,000 feet) and at a maximum dynamic pressure (which NASA calls "MaxQ") of approximately 800 pounds per square foot (about 38 kilopascals).
Further information about the Ares 1-X rocket is found at the iTWire article "NASA gives GO to first test flight of Ares 1."
UPDATE: NASA announces that it will attempt to launch the Ares 1-X tomorrow at 8 a.m. EDT. The twenty-four turnaround time should see better weather conditions for the upcoming launch. Today's weather forecast a 60% chance of unacceptable weather. Wednesday's launch attempt should see about a 30% chance of unacceptable weather.
