Evaluations put NASA Orion on track for 2014 space mission
- 9 years ago
Originally published on October 30, 2013
The Orion, NASA's first spacecraft designed to carry astronauts into deep space, was powered up for the first time at an evaluation conducted at Kennedy Space Center in Florida last week.
Preliminary data from tests conducted during the evaluation confirm that Orion's vehicle management computer and power and data distribution systems are performing within expectations, putting the spaceship on track for it first mission, known as Exploration Flight Test-1, in the fall of 2014.
In the four-hour mission, an unmanned Orion capsule will be launched more than 5,800 km above the Earth's surface, putting it 15 times further from the Earth than the International Space Station. After the Orion orbits twice around the Earth, it will return to Earth at a peak velocity of over 32,000 kilometres per hour and withstand temperatures of up to 2,204°C in its exterior.
One of the main objectives of this mission is to gather data to inform engineers for future heat shield and flight systems development. The deep space aircraft is intended to enable interplanetary exploration, transporting humans well beyond the earth's orbit — out to asteroids, and Mars, eventually.
"Orion will take humans farther than we've ever been before, and in just about a year we're going to send the Orion test vehicle into space," Dan Dumbacher, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, was quoted as saying in a NASA press release. "The work we're doing now, the momentum we're building, is going to carry us on our first trip to an asteroid and eventually to Mars. No other vehicle currently being built can do that, but Orion will, and EFT-1 is the first step."
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The Orion, NASA's first spacecraft designed to carry astronauts into deep space, was powered up for the first time at an evaluation conducted at Kennedy Space Center in Florida last week.
Preliminary data from tests conducted during the evaluation confirm that Orion's vehicle management computer and power and data distribution systems are performing within expectations, putting the spaceship on track for it first mission, known as Exploration Flight Test-1, in the fall of 2014.
In the four-hour mission, an unmanned Orion capsule will be launched more than 5,800 km above the Earth's surface, putting it 15 times further from the Earth than the International Space Station. After the Orion orbits twice around the Earth, it will return to Earth at a peak velocity of over 32,000 kilometres per hour and withstand temperatures of up to 2,204°C in its exterior.
One of the main objectives of this mission is to gather data to inform engineers for future heat shield and flight systems development. The deep space aircraft is intended to enable interplanetary exploration, transporting humans well beyond the earth's orbit — out to asteroids, and Mars, eventually.
"Orion will take humans farther than we've ever been before, and in just about a year we're going to send the Orion test vehicle into space," Dan Dumbacher, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, was quoted as saying in a NASA press release. "The work we're doing now, the momentum we're building, is going to carry us on our first trip to an asteroid and eventually to Mars. No other vehicle currently being built can do that, but Orion will, and EFT-1 is the first step."
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TomoNews is your daily source for top animated news. We've combined animation and video footage with a snarky personality to bring you the biggest and best stories from around the world.
For news that's fun and ne