Orion is designed to become NASA's newest spacecraft, and the vehicle is on schedule to make its first test flight in December, the space agency announced. The spacecraft will be rolled out to Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral, on the evening of November 11. The roll out was originally scheduled for November 10, but weather conditions at the spaceport forced a 24-hour delay.
The first test flight of the Orion space capsule is scheduled for December 4. This launch will not carry a human crew, although the vehicle is designed to bring astronauts to Mars, the asteroids and beyond.
Orion will travel around 3,600 miles away from Earth during the flight, the furthest any NASA vehicle meant for human habitation has traveled since the last crewed lunar mission in 1972. During the test flight, the Orion spacecraft will make two complete orbits of the Earth before returning to our home planet.
"The six-hour journey to the launch pad is planned to begin at about 8:30 p.m. Orion is expected to arrive at the launch complex around 2 a.m. It will then be lifted into place and attached atop the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket," NASA officials announced on their Web site.
The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket that will lift Orion to space will be the world's most powerful booster, delivering more than two million pounds of thrust. On November 5, NASA engineers carried out a test of the systems that will be used to fuel the massive booster rocket prior to launch.
"Working in control rooms at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, countdown operators followed the same steps they will take on launch day. The simulation also allowed controllers to evaluate the fuel loading and draining systems on the complex rocket before the Orion spacecraft is placed atop the launcher," NASA officials told the press.
Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) will also test the effects of radiation on spacecraft systems, as well as avionics, heat shielding, and other systems critical to crewed missions.
The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle was originally designed as part of Constellation program. Once plans for that system were scrubbed by President Obama, the capsule design was carried over to the new Space Launch System.
The national space agency plans to capture an asteroid, and move the space rock into orbit about the Moon. There, astronauts will visit the body sometime around the year 2025. Ten years later, NASA hopes to send people to the Red Planet.
