Discover Magazine reports that NASA will unveil the replacement for the Space Shuttle’s delivery system, the Ares rocket, on October 19. A test launch is scheduled for October 27.

The Ares 1-X, as the rocket-to-be-launched is called, is not the final system, but rather a rocket to test the hardware for the future system.

The Ares I-X is not NASA’s final rocket assembly that will take humans back into space in the post-Shuttle era; it’s a test vehicle to check out some of the hardware and procedures that will be used in the full-up Ares I rocket. And NASA plans on building the larger and more powerful Ares V, which is what will return us to the Moon, assuming all goes according to the current plan.

The launch will take place from launchpad 39B in Cape Canaveral.

Photo (via Discover Magazine)