NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, center, looks at the heat shield of Orion as Kelvin Manning, associate director of Kennedy Space Center, left, and Jules Schneider accompany him. Photo credits: NASA/Cory Huston
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden looked over the agency’s Orion spacecraft this morning for the first time since it returned to Kennedy Space Center following the successful Orion flight test on Dec. 5. Bearing the marks of a spacecraft that has returned to Earth through a searing plunge into the atmosphere, Orion is perched on a pedestal inside the Launch Abort System Facility at Kennedy where it is going through post-mission processing. Although the spacecraft Bolden looked over did not fly with a crew aboard during the flight test, Orion is designed to carry astronauts into deep space in the future setting NASA and the nation firmly on the journey to Mars.
We can’t give you a ride inside Orion firsthand, but we can show what it looked like from the spacecraft thanks to cameras aboard the ship during the 4.5-hour flight test on Dec. 5. The last 10 minutes of Orion’s flight test show the plunge through Earth’s atmosphere, when searing plasma so hot it appears purple (upper left) surrounds Orion.
A few minutes later you can witness the jettison of the forward bay cover, followed by the release of the drogue chutes and then the main chutes (lower left). It’s all right there before your eyes just as it happened on Orion and how future astronauts will see it when they return from deep space missions and one day coming home from Mars.
It took a team of divers, handlers and spacecraft specialists from NASA, the U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin to pull Orion from the sea following the spacecraft’s successful flight test and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Read about the work performed Dec. 5 to secure Orion inside the USS Anchorage before bringing the spacecraft back to shore to begin its cross-country road trip back to Florida. http://go.nasa.gov/1Gpq7CJ
President Obama, speaking to the Senior Executive Service, recognized Julie Kramer White, Orion’s chief engineer, for the successful Orion flight test. He also noted the spacecraft’s mission, saying that “when a human is the first to set foot (on Mars), they will have Julie and her team to thank and at that point, I’ll be out of the presidency and I might hitch a ride.”
The Orion spacecraft was off-loaded from the well deck of the USS Anchorage Monday night after the amphibious ship docked in San Diego. The ship’s crew along with NASA and Lockheed Martin teams retrieved the spacecraft from the Pacific Ocean at the end of the highly successful Orion flight test that saw the Orion fly about 3,600 miles above Earth in a 4.5-hour evaluation of critical systems and mechanisms including jettison events and the ability of the heat shield to stand up to temperatures of 4,000 degrees F. Next up for Orion, a trip cross-country back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
An MH-60 helicopter flies over the Orion as recovery teams move in to retrieve the spacecraft.
Orion is expected to be off-loaded from the USS Anchorage today at Naval Base San Diego today following its recovery Friday after splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The spacecraft is nestled inside the well deck of the amphibious ship during the trek from its splashdown point about 600 miles southwest of San Diego.
The spacecraft then will be transported to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida where engineers will gather more information about Orion’s performance.
Orion’s flight tested many of the systems most critical to crew safety, including key separation events, parachutes and its heat shield. During Orion’s re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft endured speeds of 20,000 mph and temperatures near 4,000 degrees F.
The Orion floats in the Pacific with stabilizing balloons inflated as the USS Anchorage moves int to retrieve the spacecraft.The Orion spacecraft is guided into the well deck of the USS Anchorage during recovery operations following splashdown.
Photo credit: NASA/Sandra Joseph and Kevin O’connell
Fresh from the conclusion of the first-ever flight test of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, some of the managers behind the flawless mission gave an early indication of what it took for Orion to be successful and what the spacecraft’s two-orbit, 4.5-hour means for its goals to explore deep space and make a human journey to Mars.
“We as a species are meant to press humanity further into the solar system and this is a first step,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Directorate. “What a tremendous team effort.”
Orion launched this morning at 7:05 a.m. EST to begin what would prove to be a perfect flight. Riding atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy, the largest rocket in the American inventory, Orion flew to an altitude of 3,604 miles on its second orbit and plunged into Earth’s atmosphere at 20,000 mph before slowing down, releasing its parachutes and landing gently in the Pacific Ocean within sight of NASA and U.S. Navy recovery teams.
“It is hard to have a better day than today,” said Mark Geyer, Orion program manager. “The upper stage put us right where we wanted to be and some of those pictures where you could see the frame of the window, you don’t feel like you’re watching like a satellite, you feel like an astronaut yourself.”
Orion did not carry any people into space during this flight, but is designed to take astronauts on deep space missions in the future. It became the first spacecraft designed for humans to leave low-Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 mission, the last moon landing by NASA.
“We’re already working on the next capsule,” said Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin’s Orion program manager, the company that built Orion and operated the flight for NASA. “We’ll learn a tremendous amount from what we did today.”
Orion did not carry any people into space, but is designed to take humans on deep space missions in the future. It became the first human-rated spacecraft to leave low-Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 mission, the last moon landing by NASA.
“We’re already working on the next capsule,” said Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin’s Orion program manager, the company that built Orion and operated the flight for NASA. “We’ll learn a tremendous amount from what we did today.
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden looked over the agency’s Orion spacecraft this morning for the first time since it returned to Kennedy Space Center following the successful Orion flight test on Dec. 5. Bearing the marks of a spacecraft that has returned to Earth through a searing plunge into the atmosphere, Orion is perched on a pedestal inside the Launch Abort System Facility at Kennedy where it is going through post-mission processing. Although the spacecraft Bolden looked over did not fly with a crew aboard during the flight test, Orion is designed to carry astronauts into deep space in the future setting NASA and the nation firmly on the journey to Mars.
