Nothing gets the NASA boys fired up quite like a rocket launch.

The Ares I-X rocket, a modified prototype of the Ares I rocket that may send humans back to the moon, and the 2.6 million pounds of thrust it put out, sent the engineers at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral into paroxysms of joy.

"You all did frickin' fantastic," said Ed Mango, the new launch director for Constellation at Kennedy, shortly before having his tie cut just above the navel by the director of Kennedy, Bill Parsons Robert Cabana.

The tie-cutting is an old tradition borrowed from the Air Force — and it matched the back-to-the-future mood of the event perfectly.

All the giddiness comes at an odd time for Ares I, and the Constellation program of which it's a part. An Obama-requested review of NASA's plans for human spaceflight wrapped up its work last week with a thumbs-down for the Ares I.

"I got tears in my eyes. All the naysayers ..." said Parsons, before breaking off and continuing along a more positive line. "That was just one of the most beautiful rocket launches I've ever seen."

The NASA engineers are also looking to get some real data from the 700 sensors aboard the vehicles to test their models of how the new rocket is supposed to behave.

"The most valuable learning is through experience and observation," said Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager, in a release. "Tests such as this — from paper to flight — are vital in gaining a deeper understanding of the vehicle, from design to development."

Updated: Correction on Kennedy launch director, thanks to @tim846.

Image: flickr/Matthew Simantov

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