- Title: USA: NASA tests next generation manned space capsule
- Date: 17th September 2014
- Summary: AT SEA NEAR SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 15, 2014) (REUTERS) NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATIONS (NASA)'S SPACECRAFT ORION FLOATING OFF OF THE SOUTHERN COAST OF CALIFORNIA USS ANCHORAGE ORION FLOATING IN WATER OFF THE PORT SIDE OF THE USS ANCHORAGE US NAVY AND PERSONNEL ON THE DECK OF THE USS ANCHORAGE OBSERVING THE RECOVERY OF THE ORION (SOUNDBITE) (English) NASA ADMINISTRATOR, CHARLES BOLDEN, SAYING: "Orion is the first vehicle intended to carry humans beyond Earth orbit that this nation has done in more than 40 years and so the tests that are going on out here at sea are the final stages of the test on recovery of the vehicle when it lands back out here after the real flight article launches from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral in December. But Orion's purpose is to carry a crew as large as seven out beyond Earth orbit into deep space, whether it be back to the lunar vicinity which is what we call our exploring or our proving ground or whether it is to take them on distantly to Mars as we hope to do in the 2030s."
- Embargoed: 2nd October 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVADRKLGECCSYMAS442LI4F7JAS7
- Story Text: A NASA spacecraft designed to one day fly astronauts to Mars is being readied for a debut test flight in December.
"Orion is the first vehicle intended to carry humans beyond Earth orbit that this nation has done in more than 40 years and so the tests that are going on out here at sea are the final stages of the test on recovery of the vehicle when it lands back out here after the real flight article launches from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral in December. But Orion's purpose is to carry a crew as large as seven out beyond Earth orbit into deep space, whether it be back to the lunar vicinity which is what we call our exploring or our proving ground or whether it is to take them on distantly to Mars as we hope to do in the 2030s," Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator said.
An unmanned version of the gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, which has been under construction for three years, is due to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket on Dec. 4 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
In December Orion will be flown to an altitude of about 3,600 miles (5,800 km) from Earth, 14 times farther away than the International Space Station.
The capsule will then careen back toward the planet, slamming into the atmosphere at 20,000 mph (32,000 kph).
At that speed, Orion's thermal protection system should heat up to about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius), proving the shield can protect astronauts returning from the moon and other deep-space destinations.
Orion is part of NASA's follow-up program to the now-retired space shuttles that will allow astronauts to travel beyond the International Space Station, which flies about 260 miles (418 km) above Earth.
A test flight with crew aboard is set for 2021. NASA intends to use the rocket and Orion to fly astronauts to an asteroid that has been robotically relocated into a high orbit around the moon.
On Monday (September 15) a joint NASA-U.S. Navy practice run of the Orion recovery was held at sea off the coast of San Diego to test the well deck recovery method.
"We're looking at two approaches with the Orion crew module, one is crane based and in that particular model it's probably not that different from the Apollo. The one we looked at today was a well deck ship recovery and so what we did was we went out and we deployed a winch line into the crew module and we towed the crew module in close to the well deck and then we actually had Navy line tenders help guide it into the back of the well deck ship," Mike Boulder, Grounds System Program Manager at the Kennedy Space Center told Reuters.
Eventually, the U.S. space agency wants to fly a four-member crew to Mars.
"The number one method of recovery today should be just simply floating it into the well deck of this ship or ship just like this so that's what we're going to see demonstrated this afternoon. If that goes well, we're ready to go fly, " Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator said.
NASA has been out of the human space launch business since the shuttle program ended in 2011.
The agency currently buys rides for space station crew members aboard Russian Soyuz capsules.
On Tuesday (September 15) SpaceX and Boeing were awarded contracts to individually build a U.S.-based commercial space taxi.
Work on the Orion deep-space capsule, built by Lockheed Martin, began more than a decade ago under NASA's defunct Constellation moon program.
NASA has already spent about $9 billion developing Orion. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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