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Erde aus ca. 5000km Entfernung ORION 1 – Earth From NASA Orion1 Spacecraft – Video

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Erde aus ca. 5000km Entfernung ORION 1 - Earth From NASA Orion1 Spacecraft
Die Orion Testkapsel hat eine Hhe von etwa 5800 Km erreicht.-(zum Vergleich: ISS kreist in etwa 400 Kilometer- 15.43 Uhr: Kritischer Meilenstein: Orion 1 hat den kritischen Punkt von...

By: Stefan Meyer

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Erde aus ca. 5000km Entfernung ORION 1 - Earth From NASA Orion1 Spacecraft - Video

NASA's New Horizons awakens for meeting with Pluto

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After nine years in stasis en route to the outer limits of the solar system, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has woken up in preparation for its Pluto survey.

Artist's concept of New Horizons nearing Pluto. NASA

Almost 9 years and 3 billion miles ago, NASA launched New Horizons -- a space probe with a big mission -- to boldly go where no space probe had gone before. Its destination was the solar system's most famous dwarf planet, Pluto, and its home, the asteroid-rich region called the Kuiper Belt.

In order to travel the distance, New Horizons -- launched from Earth on January 19, 2006 -- was put into hibernation for about two-thirds of its journey, or 1,873 days. As its long journey comes to an end, so too has that hibernation: at 9:53 p.m. EST, the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory confirmed that it had received the signal that indicated the pre-programmed "on" switch had toggled (a signal, NASA noted, that took 4 hours and 26 minutes in transit between New Horizons and the NASA Deep Space Network in Canberra, Australia). The space probe is awake.

"This is a watershed event that signals the end of New Horizons crossing of a vast ocean of space to the very frontier of our solar system, and the beginning of the mission's primary objective: the exploration of Pluto and its many moons in 2015," said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern.

New Horizons' stasis wasn't constant: the probe went into 18 separate sleeps on its journey, ranging between 36 and 202 days. This sleep cycle allowed the NASA team to monitor the probe while it was awake, and preserve it from wear and tear on its components, and reduce the risk of system failure, while it was asleep.

Pluto and its moons Charon, Nix and Hydra, as captured by the Hubble telescope. New Horizons will provide a lot more information. NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team

Its awakening was programmed by the team back in August.

"Technically, this was routine, since the wake-up was a procedure that we'd done many times before, said New Horizons project manager Glen Fountain. "Symbolically, however, this is a big deal. It means the start of our pre-encounter operations."

Before the probe begins surveying Pluto and its system on January 15, the team on Earth will spend the next several weeks checking New Horizons, making sure it is fully operational, testing commands and sequences. They'll also test the probe's array of sensors: infrared and ultraviolet imaging spectrometers, a compact multicolour camera, a high-resolution telescopic camera, two powerful particle spectrometers and a space dust detector.

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NASA's New Horizons awakens for meeting with Pluto

NASA: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News – The Huffington Post

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While the first launch of Orion (a program which has already been around for a decade) is an important step, NASA is nowhere close to having its own manned space system.

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Fund NASA, invest in SpaceX, write your congressperson, and vote. Space travel isn't just cool. It isn't just something to do because we can. If Interstellar has anything to teach us, it's that space travel can save our species. The truth is we might need saving very soon.

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In early December, NASA will take an important step into the future with the first flight test of the Orion spacecraft -- the first vehicle in history capable of taking humans to multiple destinations in deep space.

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NASA: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News - The Huffington Post

NASA's Orion splashes down

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(CNN) -- With one 4-hour flight Friday, the new spacecraft series that NASA hopes will take astronauts to Mars passed its first test above Earth.

NASA's Orion capsule -- part of America's bid to take crews beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time since the Apollo missions -- splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday morning after lapping the planet twice on an uncrewed test flight.

The cone-shaped craft, slowed by a series of parachutes, settled onto the water at 8:29 a.m. PT (11:29 a.m. ET) about 600 miles southwest of San Diego.

"America has driven a golden spike as it crosses a bridge into the future," a NASA announcer said as the capsule bobbed on the ocean's surface during the agency's TV broadcast of the event.

The flight took Orion farther from Earth than any craft designed for human flight since the Apollo 17 mission to the moon in 1972 -- a confidence builder for a program that NASA hopes will take its first human crew into space in 2021.

Orion -- NASA's next giant leap

Orion -- NASA's next giant leap

Orion -- NASA's next giant leap

Orion -- NASA's next giant leap

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NASA's Orion splashes down

NASA tries again to launch new Orion spacecraft

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AP Photo/NASA In this frame grab from NASA-TV, the Orion spacecraft descends before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, Friday, Dec. 5, 2014, following a dramatic test flight that took it to a zenith height of 3,600 miles and ushered in a new era of human exploration aiming for Mars.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) NASA's new Orion spacecraft made a "bull's-eye" splashdown in the Pacific on Friday following a dramatic test flight that took it to a zenith of 3,604 miles and ushered in a new era of human exploration aiming for Mars.

The unmanned test flight ended 4 hours after it began and achieved at least one record: flying farther and faster than any capsule built for humans since the Apollo moon program.

"There's your new spacecraft, America," Mission Control commentator Rob Navias said as the Orion capsule neared the water 270 miles off Mexico's Baja peninsula.

Navias called the journey "the most perfect flight you could ever imagine."

Blast off! NASA launches Orion spacecraft on first Mars test flight

NASA is counting on future Orions to carry astronauts beyond Earth's orbit, to asteroids and ultimately the grand prize: Mars.

The agency reported some positive results, saying onboard computers were unaffected by high radiation in space.

The capsule reached a peak altitude more than 14 times farther from Earth than the International Space Station. No spacecraft designed for astronauts had gone so far since Apollo 17 NASA's final moon shot 42 years ago.

NASA needed to send Orion that high in order to set the crew module up for a 20,000-mph, 4,000-degree entry. That was considered the most critical part of the entire flight testing the largest of its kind heat shield for survival before humans climb aboard.

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NASA tries again to launch new Orion spacecraft


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