NASA’s new Orion spaceship set for first test flight

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It looks like a throwback to the Apollo era, but NASA’s new spaceship is roomier and designed to go far beyond the moon — it’s expected to carry astronauts to an asteroid and eventually Mars.

This is a huge, historic deal for NASA and U.S. space science. It’s also a big deal for two Colorado companies that are critical to the Orion program. United Launch Alliance builds the rocket that will carry Orion into space. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor that’s building the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.

Orion spaceship. Photo: NASA Orion is scheduled to lift off on its first test flight at 5:05 a.m. MT Thursday from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch window will be open for two hours and 39 minutes.

Orion will climb to an altitude of 3,600 miles (15 times higher than the International Space Station) and orbit Earth twice during the four and a half hour test run, NASA says. The spaceship will splash down in the Pacific Ocean about 600 miles off the coast of Baja California. Two U.S. Navy ships, the USS Anchorage and the USNS Salvor, will help NASA recover the capsule.

This first flight won’t carry any astronauts, but it will move NASA closer to getting back in the crewed spaceflight business.

“I thought Obama put an end to the Mars mission. Does he know what’s going on?”

He did! He canceled the Constellation program back in 2010 and then replaced it with the Space Launch System in 2011.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation_program
The Constellation Program (abbreviated CxP) was a human spaceflight program developed within NASA, the space agency of the United States, from 2005 to 2009. The milestone goals of the program were “completion of the International Space Station” and a “return to the moon no later than 2020” with the planet Mars as the ultimate goal. The program’s logo reflected the three stages of the program—earth (ISS), moon, Mars—while the Mars goal found expression in the name given to the program’s booster rockets: Ares.[1][2] Technological aims of the program included the regaining of significant astronaut experience beyond low earth orbit and development of technologies necessary to enable sustained human presence on other planetary bodies.

Constellation began in response to the goals laid out in the Vision for Space Exploration under NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe. It had already begun development, under several proposals.[4][5] O’Keefe’s successor, Michael D. Griffin, ordered a complete review, termed the Exploration Systems Architecture Study, which reshaped how NASA would pursue the goals laid out in the Vision for Space Exploration. The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 formalized the findings of the Exploration Systems Architecture Study. The Act directed NASA to “develop a sustained human presence on the Moon, including a robust precursor program to promote exploration, science, commerce and US preeminence in space, and as a stepping stone to future exploration of Mars and other destinations.”[1] Work began on this revised Constellation Program to send astronauts first to the International Space Station, then to the Moon, then Mars and beyond.[2]

Subsequent to findings of the Augustine Committee in 2009 that the Constellation Program could not be executed without substantial increases in funding, on February 1, 2010, President Barack Obama announced a proposal to cancel the program, effective with the U.S. 2011 fiscal year budget,[6][7][8][9] but later announced changes to the proposal in a major space policy speech at Kennedy Space Center on April 15, 2010. Obama signed the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 on October 11 which shelved the program,[10] with Constellation contracts remaining in place until Congress acts to overturn the previous mandate.[11][12] The program has since been replaced by the space policy of the Barack Obama administration in which some of its hardware remains in quiet development. NASA announced that it had selected the design of the very similar Space Launch System in September 2011.[13]

What is the Space Launch System, you ask?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System
The Space Launch System (SLS) is a United States Space Shuttle-derived heavy launch vehicle being designed by NASA. It follows the cancellation of the Constellation Program, and is to replace the retired Space Shuttle. The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 envisions the transformation of the Constellation program’s Ares I and Ares V vehicle designs into a single launch vehicle usable for both crew and cargo.

The SLS launch vehicle is to be upgraded over time with more powerful versions. Its initial Block I version is to lift a payload of 70 metric tons to low Earth orbit (LEO), which will be increased with the debut of Block IB and the Exploration Upper Stage.[4] Block II will replace the initial Shuttle-derived boosters with advanced boosters and is planned to have a LEO capability of more than 130 metric tons to meet the congressional requirement;[5] this would make the SLS the most capable heavy lift vehicle ever built.[6][7]

These upgrades will allow the SLS to lift astronauts and hardware to various beyond-LEO destinations: on a circumlunar trajectory as part of Exploration Mission 1 with Block I, to a near-Earth asteroid in Exploration Mission 2 with Block IB, and to Mars with Block II. The SLS will launch the Orion Crew and Service Module and may support trips to the International Space Station if necessary. SLS will use the ground operations and launch facilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

This is a heads up for two launches scheduled tomorrow.

Delta 4-Heavy • Orion EFT-1
Launch window: 1205 GMT (7:05 a.m. EST/4:05 a.m. PST)
Launch site: SLC-37B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket will launch NASA’s Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle on Exploration Flight Test-1. The uncrewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft will reach an altitude of 3,600 miles before re-entering the atmosphere to demonstrate the capsule’s heat shield. The largest of the Delta 4 family, the Heavy version features three Common Booster Cores mounted together to form a triple-body rocket. Delayed from September. [Nov. 18]

Live launch coverage can be viewed here:
http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/12/02/orion-eft1-mission-status-center/

Ariane 5 • DirecTV 14 & GSAT 16
Launch window: 2038-2148 GMT (3:38 p.m. EST/12:38 p.m. PST)
Launch site: ELA-3, Kourou, French Guiana
Arianespace will use an Ariane 5 ECA rocket, designated VA221, to launch the DirecTV 14 and GSAT 16 satellites. DirecTV 14 will provide direct-to-home television broadcasts across the United States. GSAT 16 will supply communications services for the Indian Space Research Organization. [Nov. 19]

Live launch coverage can be viewed here:
http://www.arianespace.tv/

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