Orion is scheduled to lift off on its first test flight at 7:05 a.m. ET 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.
Orion is wrapped in protective panels before being moved to the launch pad on November 10.
This first flight won't carry any astronauts, but it will move NASA closer to getting back in the crewed spaceflight business. The U.S. has had to pay Russia's space agency to launch astronauts to the space station since the space shuttle program ended in 2011.
Orion's crew module is designed to carry four people on a 21-day mission. But it could support six astronauts for shorter missions. By comparison, the Apollo capsules held three astronauts and were out in space for about six to 12 days.
No comments:
Post a Comment