The Ares I rocket is an integral part of NASA’s Constellation Program: an advanced craft which is intending replace the ill-fated Space Shuttle program.

A report on at MediaFlux suggests that NASA has completed a very successful preliminary review of the designs of Ares. Ares will take the Orion shuttle crew into orbit sometime in 2015 – that’s if all goes to plan! – which is two years later than was originally envisaged. This postponement was announced last month to the consternation of staff and supporters across the world.

The design review itself was a mammoth task, taking a team of more than 1,100 specialists based in Huntsville, Alabama at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Little wonder, then, that we cannot expect anything to get into the air for another 7 years. These things clearly cannot be rushed.

This Ares design review was the first in what promises to be a very long series of reviews. NASA hopes that a lengthy, extensive and very thorough design review series will highlight and tackle most of the problems that might appear on this long road to actually getting the thing build. People’s lives are a stake, so all the care and attention in the world is never enough.