60-Second Know-It-All: NASA returns to space with unmanned Orion
This is about as challenging and dangerous as an unmanned test flight can get.
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60-Second Know-It-All: NASA returns to space with unmanned Orion - Video
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- NASA on Thursday morning hopes to enjoy one of its biggest moments since the shuttle era ended in 2011 -- if it can get some kinks worked out.
The space agency's new Orion spacecraft is scheduled to lift off on an uncrewed test flight from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. But some delays have so far kept it on the launch pad.
The launch, initially set for 7:05 a.m. ET, was delayed for various reasons, including wind gusts, a boat coming too close to the launch area, and a failure of some fuel valves to close in the booster rockets, NASA said.
Mission managers hope to launch the craft before the day's window closes at 9:44 a.m. ET.
"We haven't had this feeling in awhile, since the end of the shuttle program," Mike Sarafin, Orion flight director at Johnson Space Center, said in a preflight briefing on Wednesday. He said it's the beginning of something new: exploring deep space.
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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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- It's the biggest countdown for NASA since the shuttle era ended in 2011. The space agency's new Orion spacecraft is scheduled to lift off on an uncrewed test flight at 7:05 a.m. ET Thursday from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
"We haven't had this feeling in awhile, since the end of the shuttle program," Mike Sarafin, Orion flight director at Johnson Space Center, said in a preflight briefing on Wednesday. He said it's the beginning of something new: exploring deep space.
Orion looks like a throwback to the Apollo era, but it is roomier and designed to go far beyond the moon: to an asteroid and eventually to Mars.
"It is, I think, consistent with those -- the beginning of shuttle and beginning of Apollo," said Mark Geyer, NASA Orion program manager. "I think it's in the same category."
Orion -- NASA's next giant leap
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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Orion awaits its test flight on the launchpad. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
NASA wants to get back in the business of sending astronauts into deep space, including Mars. Today will be a big test for fulfilling those aspirations.
At 7:05a.m. Eastern Time, NASA will launch the first test flight of its Orion spacecraft the chariot that could taxi astronauts to the Red Planet and beyond by the late 2030s. On its unmanned inaugural journey, scientists hope to learn more about the crafts safety systems and durability.
From blast-off to splashdown, Orions entire $370-million journey will be completed in just a matter of hours. Fastened atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket, Orion will reach an altitude of 3,600 miles above Earth 15 times higher than the International Space Station.
After orbiting our planet twice, Orion will reenter Earths atmosphere at 20,000 miles per hour, and its heat shields will need to withstand temperatures of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. When the craft finally splashes into the Pacific Ocean it will have covered more than 60,000 miles in a 4.5-hour journey.
Credit: NASA
NASA plans to conduct a second test run for Orion in 2018, whenthe craft will make a trip around the moon and back. If all goes as expected, and funding stays on track, a manned mission around the moon is slated to occur in 2021.
Moving forward, the craft could carry astronauts to an asteroid in the late 2020s and perhaps to Mars by the late 2030s.
Orion is the future of space exploration at NASA, but it bears a striking resemblance to the cone-shaped spacecraft that ferried Apollo astronauts to the moon and back. Orion is about 30 percent larger than the Apollo capsules, and can house up to six crew members for missions up to 21 days in duration. It can also attach to other craft for extended journeys.
A peek inside Orion. Credit: NASA
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NASA Prepares to Test Spacecraft That Could Take People to Mars
Dec. 3, 2014: The NASA Orion space capsule is seen atop a Delta IV rocket ready for a test launch at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.(AP)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. With the imminent debut of its Orion spacecraft, NASA is on a high not felt since the space shuttle days.
Shuttle veterans, in fact, are leading the charge in Thursday morning's two-orbit, 4-hour test flight, meant to shake out the capsule before astronauts climb aboard eventually, perhaps, to visit Mars.
"We haven't had this feeling in a while, since the end of the shuttle program," said Mike Sarafin, the lead flight director stationed at Mission Control in Houston. "Launching an American spacecraft from American soil and beginning something new, in this case exploring deep space."
Orion is set to fly farther than any human-rated spacecraft since the Apollo moon program, aiming for a distance of 3,600 miles, more than 14 times higher than the International Space Station.
That peak altitude will provide the necessary momentum for a 20,000-mph, 4,000-degree entry over the Pacific. Those 11 short minutes to splashdown is what NASA calls the "trial by fire," arguably the most critical part of the entire test flight. The heat shield at Orion's base, at 16.5 feet across, is the largest of its kind ever built.
Navy ships were stationed near the recovery zone off the Mexican Baja coast.
"It's an exciting time," Jeff Angermeier, ground support mission manager, said from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. "You can feel the buzz."
An estimated 26,000 guests were expected to jam Kennedy for the sunrise launch, as well as 650 journalists. (Actually, the unmanned rocket will blast off from the adjoining Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.) The space center press site was packed Wednesday with out-of-town reporters not seen here since the last shuttle flight in 2011.
NASA's Orion program manager, Mark Geyer, puts the capsule's inaugural run on a par with the formative steps of Apollo and the space shuttles.
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It seems bad luck does come in threes.
Launch day for NASA's Orion spacecraft was delayed by a trio of problems, including wind gusts, a stray boat in the launch zone and technical issues that prompted the space agency to call it a day.
NASA announced the launch was scrubbed for today, just before the lift off window closed at 9:44 am ET.
The first setback came when NASA said a boat drifted into the launch zone before Orion was scheduled to launch on a Delta IV rocket today at 7:04 am ET.
A new launch time 13 minutes later was again pushed back due to winds.
Less than an hour later, NASA reported that the new launch time of 8:26 am ET would not hold up after a fuel and drain valve did not close. NASA said it was cycling the valves open on three core boosters to see if opening and closing them again would solve the issue.
The Orion space capsule is seen as crucial step toward the dream on one day sending a manned mission to Mars. Once it does lift off, NASA will be watching closely to see how Orion holds up to a series of stress tests in space.
Orion seats four astronauts -- one more than Apollo. While the design may be the similar, Orion is equipped with technology that is light-years ahead of its Moon-shot mission predecessor.
While in orbit, Orion will circle the Earth twice at an altitude of 3,600 miles and will make re-entry at 20,000 mph with temperatures hitting 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
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As NASA's Orion craft makes its first flight in the decades-long journey to land humans on Mars, the craft will strike many people as a throwback. Squint an eye and the Orion crew module bears a remarkable resemblance to the Apollo craft that ferried astronauts to the moon more than 40 years ago.
NASA's choice of a blunt-bottomed conical capsule design on both spacecraft isn't an accident. Instead, the blunt cone shape causes high drag to help slow the craft as it descends. When it returns to Earth from its farther-flung missions, Orion will be traveling nearly 7 miles per second, or hypersonic speeds multiple times faster than the speed of sound. At that speed, managing the enormous temperatures the craft will generate--in excess of 5,000 degrees F--requires an effective design with intense shielding. That's one reason the initial test flight's prime job is to assess the updated shield built for Orion.
"The 'capsule shape' happens to be good aerodynamically for slowing down the vehicle without it burning up like a meteor," Kelly Smith, a NASA guidance engineer, wrote last month in a public discussion the agency held on Reddit. "Sharp shapes tend to heat up too much and melt/vaporize. A blunt shape works well hypersonically for keeping the heating to more manageable levels. If you look at ballistic missiles, all of their nose cones are 'blunt' as well (spheres, sphere-cones, etc) to deal with the extreme heating environment."
The cone's imbalanced shape also causes the craft to fly "crooked" as it hurtles toward earth at a rate of about five times the speed of sound, Smith explained. "This angle of attack causes Orion to have a little bit of lift; we can use this lift to steer the vehicle and control the entry trajectory by banking Orion like a glider," he wrote. Russia uses a similar shape for its Soyuz capsules, as does SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.
Weather permitting, Orion is scheduled to launch Thursday morning on a 4.5-hour, two-orbit cycle around Earth, reaching an altitude 15 times higher than the International Space Station. The 3,600-mile altitude will help NASA test the craft's response to the higher radiation found outside low-earth orbit--from which the space shuttle never strayed--and to reach a 20,000 mph entry speed, about 84 percent of the speed a return from the moon generates. "Although our computers have gotten a lot more powerful, the physics of atmospheric entry hasn't changed since Apollo," says NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz.
The Orion program's homage to Apollo doesn't end with just the basic look. NASA also consulted with several retired employees who worked on the Apollo program, and at least one will be on hand to observe the flight at Mission Control in Texas. Up close, the similarities end abruptly. Orion is roughly three times larger than the Apollo crew module, built to carry four astronauts as far as Mars, a 70-million mile round-trip journey that could take as much as 23 months. On shorter trips, the craft can fit six.
Inside, Orion's "glass cockpit" would not look particularly foreign to any iPad user, with touch screens similar to those used in modern jet cockpits. Eliminating physical switches, and their associated cabling, saves enormously on weight. Only about 60 physical switches remain.
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What #39;s New - NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in Ethiopia
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By the time I applied for CERN, I had MIT and NASA on my resume
Watching Apollo 13 as a child, physics student Hayley Osman told her dad she would be an astronaut. Believing in her potential, he continually reminded her that she could do it as long...
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By the time I applied for CERN, I had MIT and NASA on my resume - Video
NASA Glenn WomenAtNasa 2014 Lobo
Women At NASA - 2014 NASA GRC, Mary Lobo.
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NASA #39;s Orion Spacecraft Prepares to Take Flight | NBC News
It #39;s a ship that could one day carry astronauts to the moon, an asteroid and even Mars. Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNew.
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NASA EDGE: Testing NASA #39;s Low Density Supersonic Decelerator
Technology Drives Exploration. NASA EDGE visits NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to check in with the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator Team. Find out how NASA #39;s Space Technology Mission ...
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Revealing What NASA Can #39;t Say Nibiru
Have a look some new evidence to te nibiru question. Thanks for watching here is the direct link to the image http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servle...
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NASA VIZ: Beautiful Visualization Explorer
NASA SCIENCE: REVEALED! This is the NASA Visualization Explorer, the coolest way to get stories about advanced space-based research delivered right to your iOS device. A direct connection to...
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[image-50]An ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model has given scientists a stunning new look at how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere travels around the globe.
Plumes of carbon dioxide in the simulation swirl and shift as winds disperse the greenhouse gas away from its sources. The simulation also illustrates differences in carbon dioxide levels in the northern and southern hemispheres and distinct swings in global carbon dioxide concentrations as the growth cycle of plants and trees changes with the seasons.
Scientists have made ground-based measurements of carbon dioxide for decades and in July NASA launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite to make global, space-based carbon observations. But the simulation the product of a new computer model that is among the highest-resolution ever created is the first to show in such fine detail how carbon dioxide actually moves through the atmosphere.
While the presence of carbon dioxide has dramatic global consequences, its fascinating to see how local emission sources and weather systems produce gradients of its concentration on a very regional scale, said Bill Putman, lead scientist on the project from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Simulations like this, combined with data from observations, will help improve our understanding of both human emissions of carbon dioxide and natural fluxes across the globe.
The carbon dioxide visualization was produced by a computer model called GEOS-5, created by scientists at NASA Goddards Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. In particular, the visualization is part of a simulation called a Nature Run. The Nature Run ingests real data on atmospheric conditions and the emission of greenhouse gases and both natural and man-made particulates. The model is then is left to run on its own and simulate the natural behavior of the Earths atmosphere. This Nature Run simulates May 2005 to June 2007.
While Goddard scientists have been tweaking a beta version of the Nature Run internally for several years, they are now releasing this updated, improved version to the scientific community for the first time. Scientists are presenting a first look at the Nature Run and the carbon dioxide visualization at the SC14 supercomputing conference this week in New Orleans.
Were very excited to share this revolutionary dataset with the modeling and data assimilation community, Putman said, and we hope the comprehensiveness of this product and its ground-breaking resolution will provide a platform for research and discovery throughout the Earth science community.
In the spring of 2014, for the first time in modern history, atmospheric carbon dioxide the key driver of global warming exceeded 400 parts per million across most of the northern hemisphere. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide concentrations were about 270 parts per million. Concentrations of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere continue to increase, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.
Despite carbon dioxides significance, much remains unknown about the pathways it takes from emission source to the atmosphere or carbon reservoirs such as oceans and forests. Combined with satellite observations such as those from NASAs recently launched OCO-2, computer models will help scientists better understand the processes that drive carbon dioxide concentrations.
The Nature Run also simulates winds, clouds, water vapor and airborne particles such as dust, black carbon, sea salt and emissions from industry and volcanoes.
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NASA is preparing for the maiden launch this week of its new Orion spacecraft, which could help jump-start America's return to human exploration of space, including a journey to Mars.
This unmanned mission is relatively simple, less than five hours long and headed to no place particularly interesting.
Yet the flight's success and what NASA can learn from it are critical to the agency's dreams to send astronauts deep into space.
NASA plans to launch Orion from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket. The plan is for Orion to orbit Earth twice, swinging out to a point 3,600 miles high, then splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.
It plans a second test launch in 2018 that would send up another unoccupied Orion, this time around the moon and back.
The first manned mission, expected in 2021, probably would also go around the moon and back. Later in the 2020s, NASA intends to send Orion and astronauts to an asteroid. By the late 2030s, it wants to send them to Mars.
NASA hopes to develop annual missions for Orion in between, but is leaving those plans undetermined, for "space destinations we cannot yet imagine," said Orion Flight Director Mike Sarafin.
That uncertainty puts the future of the program up in the air. If Orion struggles with delays, cost overruns and a lack of clear goals, as did its predecessor project, called Constellation, it could derail. In 2010, President Obama canceled Constellation, after NASA had spent $13 billion and five years on it.
The U.S. General Accounting Office estimated NASA would spend $19 billion to $22 billion on the Orion program through the first manned mission in 2021. The GAO said there was no way to estimate what would be needed beyond that.
Supporters in Congress express confidence in the space agency's agenda. "NASA knows exactly what it wants to do with this program," said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who chairs the Senate subcommittee on science and space. "This is the beginning of the trip to Mars."
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NASA set to launch Orion spacecraft, paving way for human Mars visit
Captain Kirk, Iron Man, Sesame Street's Slimey the Worm, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex are set to lift off to space later this week on the first test flight of Orion, NASA's next-generation spacecraft.
This eclectic 'crew' flying aboard NASA's unmanned Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) areamong the souvenirs and mementos packedfor the four-hour, two-orbit mission. The Orion capsule with its cargo of sensors, instruments, and memorabilia is scheduled to launch Thursday (Dec. 4) at 7:05 a.m. EST (1205 GMT) on board a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The mementos, which include a Star Trek action figure, a Marvel challenge coin, a Muppet, a dinosaur fossil, and an Apollo lunar spacesuit part, were collected for the flight by Lockheed Martin, NASA's prime contractor for Orion and the company responsible for the EFT-1 mission. [NASA's Orion Spacecraft Test Flight: Full Coverage]
The toys and artifacts packed aboard the Orion continue a long tradition dating back to the early days of U.S. human spaceflight, when astronauts carried small trinkets for their families, friends, and organizations that helped make their mission possible.
The Orion isNASA's first crewed space capsulesince the Apollo command module. It is designed to take astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before. The EFT-1 mission will test systems that are critical to future human missions to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars.
During the flight, the Orion will fly 15 times farther out than the International Space Station before plummeting back to Earth to test its heat shield at speeds nearing what it would experience if it was returning from the moon. After re-entry, the Orion will deploy parachutes and then splash down in the Pacific Ocean, where it will be recovered by the Navy. [How NASA's 1st Orion Test Flight Works in Pictures]
To raise public awareness about EFT-1, Lockheed worked with the Entertainment Industries Council (EIC) to recruit items from science fiction-related celebrities to fly onboard Orion.
"A noted space enthusiast, William Shatner is thrilled to send Kirk back to space and support Orion, while inspiring future generations about space travel," EIC vice president Skylar Jackson told collectSPACE.
Shatner provided his "Captain Kirk in Environmental Suit" collector's edition action figure to symbolize his iconic role on "Star Trek."
Director Jon Favreau offered an "Iron Man" challenge coin to represent engineering, technology and flight.
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A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket carrying NASA's first Orion deep space exploration craft is poised for launch Thursday on an unmanned test flight. The heavy-lift rocket will boost the Orion capsule to an altitude of 3,600 miles, setting up a high-speed re-entry and splashdown west of Baja California. NASA
NASA is gearing up for a milestone unmanned test flight Thursday, the first launch of the agency's Orion deep space exploration spacecraft intended to one day carry astronauts on missions beyond low-Earth orbit to the vicinity of the moon, one or more nearby asteroids and, eventually, Mars.
Liftoff atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 heavy-lift booster from launch complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is targeted for 7:05 a.m. EST (GMT-5) Thursday, the opening of a two-hour 39-minute window. Forecasters are predicting a 60 percent chance of favorable weather.
The $370 million mission "is absolutely the biggest thing that this agency's going to do this year," said William Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development. "This is really our first step in our journey to Mars."
While that might seem a stretch considering no one expects astronauts to visit the red planet before the 2030s, Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin's Orion program manager, said the new spacecraft represents a major milestone in NASA's post-shuttle evolution and its plans to fly astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time since the Apollo moon landings.
"There's always a danger of over hype, but we have now built a spacecraft that is human rated for the first time in 42 years," he said in an interview with CBS News. "And so from that standpoint, I think it's really significant.
"Granted, it's a stepping stone in the early cadence, it takes longer than most of us would want, but (it gets) people to think about the fact that you have to design a different spacecraft to go out beyond the space station than what we have been doing in low-Earth orbit for so long. So that's where I think it is, maybe, worthy of the hype."
The Orion capsule during final assembly at the Kennedy Space Center.
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Thursday's flight of NASA's Orion capsule will mark the first in-space test of the first vehicle that's designed to carry humans beyond Earth orbit since Project Apollo and the first step on a long road that could lead to putting astronauts on Mars. But the steps between now and then are definitely up in the air.
"The mission per se is great," Scott Pace, the director of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute, said of Orion's Exploration Flight Test 1, or EFT-1. "But the policy rationale for what one would do with these things is still up for debate."
The $370 million EFT-1 mission is due to send an uncrewed Orion on a 4.5-hour, two-orbit test run that zooms out to 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) and back. The craft will be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket.
A crucial phase of the test comes when Orion screams back through the atmosphere, slowing down from almost 20,000 mph (32,000 kilometers per hour) to a mere 17 mph (27 kph) when it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California for recovery. About 1,000 sensors that have been built into the craft will monitor how well Orion's heat shield and other systems perform.
All those readings will be factored into the preparations for even more ambitious trips over the coming decades. The next Orion test known as Exploration Mission 1 or EM-1 is currently set for late 2017 or 2018. It will send a robotic capsule that's more fully fitted out on a trip around the moon and back.
That trip will be powered by NASA's Space Launch System, which is currently under development but is destined to become the world's most powerful rocket.
In 2021, astronauts are due to get on board for Orion's first crewed spaceflight, designated as Expedition Mission 2, or EM-2. And this is where the mission plan gets hazier.
Last year, officials suggested that EM-2 could carry astronauts to a rendezvous with an asteroid which would have been relocated to a stable spot in the vicinity of the moon by a robotic tug launched years before. Such a mission would follow through on the Obama administration's plan to have astronauts visit a near-Earth asteroid by 2025.
However, NASASpaceflight.com reported last week that mission managers thought it would be unrealistic to do the asteroid rendezvous during Orion's first crewed test flight in 2021, and that 2024 or 2025 would be a more workable timetable. That would translate to Orion's EM-3 or EM-4 mission.
When asked about that schedule, NASA spokeswoman Rachel Kraft said it was too early to be specific.
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Radiation Belts Plasmapause
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