Splashdown. As the CRC test vehicle splashes down into the warm Pacific Ocean a cheer goes up from the from the scientists, technicians and engineers at Mission Control in Houston and at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Whilst he is pleased with the results of this first test flight, Robert L Carter watching from the Control Booth at Kennedy Space Centre knows NASA will need two more successful test flights of both the new re-designed ARES 1 booster and the CRC Crew Return Capsule before each will be granted a �Certificate of Aero-Space Worthiness� and can go fully operational. Exactly one month later the ARES 1 and CRC combination will be launched yet again for a test flight that will this time see the CRC remotely piloted from the point of separation with the ARES 1 booster until yet another successful splash down in the Pacific Ocean. One month after this the first successful manned flight of the CRC takes place, a flight which will see a two-man crew ride the ARES 1 booster to low Earth orbit, manually pilot the CRC for a docking with the orbiting ISS and safely ride the CRC back down on its return trip to Earth. With this third test flight successfully completed the ARES 1/CRC combination is granted its �Certificate of Aero-Space Worthiness� by the US Governments Aero-Space Certification Board. One month later a fourth flight of the ARES 1/CRC combination is used to transfer three new crews for NASA�s new Orbital Shuttle fleet to the International Space Station and return safely to Earth the crews which took the new Orbital Shuttles on their historic first flights into space a few months before. Even with this new goal now achieved Carter knows that both he and NASA still have a long way to go along a path which will lead both them and America to the ultimate destination he has worked and planned so long for. Here ends the second series. To be continued.