Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), manned spacecraft, NASA, Washington, D.C., USA

As the flight test of NASA’s Orion spacecraft nears, the agency released Oct. 8 a video detailing the spacecraft’s test and the critical systems engineers will evaluate during the Dec. 4 flight. Orion is in the final stages of preparation for the uncrewed flight test that will take it 3,600 miles above Earth on a 4.5-hour mission to test many of the systems necessary for future human missions into deep space. After two orbits, Orion will reenter Earth’s atmosphere at almost 20,000 miles per hour, and reach temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, before its parachute system deploys to slow the spacecraft for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

On future missions, the Orion spacecraft will carry astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before, including to an asteroid and Mars.

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Actor John Barrowman would like to introduce you to NASA’s new spacecraft, Orion. He’s “on board!”

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NASA’s Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.

On December 4, 2014, Orion will launch atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex Flight Test on the Orion Flight Test: a two-orbit, four-hour flight that will test many of the systems most critical to safety.

The Orion Flight Test will evaluate launch and high speed re-entry systems such as avionics, attitude control, parachutes and the heat shield. In the future, Orion will launch on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System. More powerful than any rocket ever built, SLS will be capable of sending humans to deep space destinations such as an asteroid and eventually Mars. Exploration Mission-1 will be the first mission to integrate Orion and the Space Launch System.

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A Delta IV Heavy rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying NASA's Orion spacecraft on an unpiloted flight test to Earth orbit. Liftoff was at 7:05 a.m. EST. During the two-orbit, four-and-a-half hour mission, engineers will evaluate the systems critical to crew safety, the launch abort system, the heat shield and the parachute system.

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NASA's Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean approximately 600 southwest of San Diego. The recovery team from NASA, the U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin will perform initial recovery operations, including safing the crew module and towing it into the well deck of the USS Anchorage, a landing platform-dock ship

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After years of design, fabrication and testing Orion completed a perfect launch into Earth's orbit. After returning to Earth NASA's Orion spacecraft is seen from an unpiloted aircraft descending under three massive red and white main parachutes and then shortly after its bullseye splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, 600 miles southwest of San Diego. During the uncrewed test, Orion traveled twice through the Van Allen belt, where it experienced periods of intense radiation, and reached an altitude of 3,600 miles above Earth. The spacecraft hit speeds of 20,000 mph and weathered temperatures approaching 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it entered Earth’s atmosphere

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The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is a spacecraft intended to carry a crew of up to four astronauts to destinations beyond-low Earth orbit

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Following a successful test flight and splashdown of NASA’s Orion space capsule, what’s next for this promising spacecraft? It’s been forty years since humans have gone beyond low Earth orbit, and now the Orion is almost ready to take us back – possibly as far as Mars! Jonathan takes us on an inside look into the incredible technology powering the vehicle that will launch us into our next phase of space exploration.

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The Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft made history as it took its first step on a journey to Mars with its successful test flight, Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1). Orion is designed to transport humans to destinations beyond low Earth orbit. During EFT-1, the spacecraft traveled 3,600 miles from Earth, (which is 15 times farther into space than the International Space Station), circled the earth twice in 4.5 hours, and reached temperatures as high as 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

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The enormous solid rocket boosters on the Orion launch system generate 3.6 million pounds of thrust! That's the equivalent of 14 jumbo jets operating at maximum power. NASA plans to increase this incredible performance to enable future missions to Mars.

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From launch to landing, Orion will be the safest spaceship in the world, returning humans to deep space and bringing them home safely. We’re pushing the envelope for crew safety – all in the name pioneering something never done before: sending people to Mars.

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The Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) flight test for NASA’s Orion Spacecraft was conducted at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, on 2 July 2019, at 11:00 UTC (07:00 EDT). During the test, the Orion’s Launch Abort System (LAS) was launched atop an abort test booster provided by Northrop Grumman to an altitude of about 9,6 km (six miles) traveling at more than 1600km/h (1,000 miles per hour). The abort motor is designed to quickly whisk the crew module away from the booster, and the Attitude Control Motor (ACM) to maneuver the assembly into position to jettison the crew module.

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On Aug 5, engineers at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility near Las Cruces, New Mexico, tested the Orion spacecraft’s service module with a ground-based firing of its propulsion and pressurization systems.

The 12-minute firing simulated an abort-to-orbit scenario – in which the system would fire long enough to place Orion in a safe, temporary orbit in the event of an issue setting Orion in the precise trajectory required to get to the Moon. That temporary orbit would allow time to evaluate the crew and spacecraft before deciding to either continue with an alternate mission profile, or return to Earth.

A test version of the propulsion system was used to fire Orion’s main engine and all eight of its auxiliary engines simultaneously. Each of the six reaction control thrusters were also periodically fired throughout the test to simulate attitude control and overall propulsion system capacity.

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This week, let's take a look #behindthescenes at the Airbus-built Orion European Service Module during the design phase. Close-collaboration with the engineers is required to get all the subsystems working together as one system.

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