America, why don't you fix your little space gap and light that candle?

These attempts trying to fill the "Great American Space Gap" is getting kind of silly.

Just the other day, ATK, previously known as Morton Thiokol, announced their plans for - hold on to your seats - building a man-rated launch vehicle, ready in 2015, based on - hold on tighter - the Ares I-X.

Their plans for this rocket were already out in the open a year ago but they were just plans, drawings and, in my opinion, plain stupid. Now that they really plan to build it, I think someone at ATK has lost his marbles.
The idea is to take the Solid Rocket Motor which boosted the shuttle stack to orbit in a previous appearance, add a fifth segment to it, and add an upper stage. This combination once was called Ares I, it flew once unmanned and it thereafter was abandoned by NASA.
ATK then took the plans back, discarded the designed upper stage and added a new one. This time they chose ESA's  Ariane V core stage. As crew capsule ATK took an old early  version of the Orion spacecraft made of composite materials and wahey! Frankenstein's monster is created!

image © ATK

Okay, I just am a space enthusiast, I am definitely not a rocket scientist or an engineer but I just cannot look at this project without seeing the word "WRONG" spelled out in big red letters all over it. You want reasons?

Titan IIIe "Voyager" 1/96 #10

It took a little while longer than I anticipated but finally, here it is. Titan IIIe carrying Voyager.

The short and long of it is that it was a fun build to do. Again, I learnt a lot. Different kinds of paper, effects printer ink has on those paper types And... first time using decals on paper models.

Yes, I got myself some printable decal paper and printed out the lettering of the first stage, which had become very faint and faded on the hull. The new lettering is clear, crisp and looks good. You still see the old letters behind it, the spacing wasn't just the same but next time there won't be lettering on the stage itself but added later by decal. Nice stuff. Now I also finally can try and build a silver coloured Atlas with a Mercury on top.

I digress.

Let's get back to the Titan.