NASA Announced The Launch Of Orion Capsule In September 2014 (+VIDEO)
NASA has announced, that a flight test of the Orion capsule is planned for September 2014. Exploration Flight Test (EFT)-1, will be the first chance engineers get to test Orion’s design in space. Flying atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket, the spacecraft will orbit the Earth twice on a track that will take it more than 3,600 miles above us, about 15 times higher than the International Space Station. The spacecraft will be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and will carry a number of instruments. Even the heat shield will have instruments to measure temperature and plasma flow around the spacecraft as it endures the searing conditions of high-speed reentry. Orion will land under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean where recovery teams from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Department of Defense will find it and return to Florida. Orion is a multi-purpose spacecraft able to handle the hardships of flying safely far beyond Earth’s atmosphere to take astronauts to distant destinations such as an asteroid and Mars. In 2017 Orion spacecraft will be paired with the agency’s massive rocket, Space Launch System (SLS). They say, the flight will begin a series of flight tests for the Orion and Space Launch System programs as the agency moves toward launching astronauts into space in 2021.
Via:missiontomorrow.tv
