NASA says it’s all systems go for the launch of the Orion space capsule Thursday.
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket will launch Orion on its two orbit, 4.5 hour flight test from Space Launch Complex 37 at 7:05 a.m. from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The Orion and the Delta IV rocket will be rolled out to the launch pad Wednesday night.
The dry run, if all goes well, will end with a Pacific splashdown off Mexico’s Baja coast. U.S Navy ships will recover the capsule, a la Apollo, for future use.
This initial Orion is rigged with 1,200 sensors to gauge its durability for the day when astronauts do climb aboard during the decade ahead. Advertised destinations include an asteroid to be corralled in lunar orbit for human exploration in the 2020s, followed by Mars in the 2030s.
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Live Chat set for 6 a.m.
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NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden is at the Kenendy Space Center. Bolden, along with other NASA, Lockheed Martin and United Launch executives, will be inspecting Orion and the Delta IV rocket Wednesday morning.
News 13’s Jerry Hume spoke with Bolden about the mission.
“This is a really big mission for both NASA and the Florida space coast, Jerry. As I was walking into CVS the other night the salesman there said are you with NASA? I said yes I am, and he said you guys are getting ready to launch aren’t you? I said, we sure are, Orion is getting ready to launch and it’s our first step to returning humans to deep space and we’re really excited about it,” said Bolden.
Lockheed Martin Corp. built the capsule and is staging the $370 million test flight for NASA.
Orion is NASA’s first new spacecraft for humans in more than a generation, succeeding the now-retired space shuttles. Unlike the capsules under development by two U.S. companies for space station crew transport, Orion is meant for the long haul, both in time and space; it would be supplemented with habitats for potential Mars trips.
“We need a spacecraft that’s going to be sturdy enough and robust enough” to carry astronauts well beyond low-Earth orbit for weeks and months at a time, said Lockheed Martin’s Bryan Austin, a former NASA shuttle flight director who will oversee Orion’s maiden voyage.
“That’s how Orion really separates itself from the commercial field. They’re there to get you to station and back. Of course, we’re there to be hardened enough to sustain it for that long duration.”
For this orbital tryout, a Delta IV rocket will hoist Orion from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Liftoff is scheduled for 7:05 a.m. EST, just after sunrise. The rocket, with Orion and its launch escape tower at the tiptop, stretches 242 feet high.
Future Orion launches will use the mega rocket still under development by NASA, known as SLS or Space Launch System. The first Orion-SLS launch is targeted for 2018, unmanned, followed by the first piloted mission in 2021.
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Press Kit: About the Mission