NASA’s Orion unmanned spacecraft successfully launched, orbited the Earth and splashed downFriday morning on its first test flight, one day after the liftoff was scrubbed due to weather and mechanical problems.Orion, a prototype capsule for future manned space missions, made two laps around the Earth, rode its Delta IV rocket up to 3,600 miles, then descended toward the Pacific Ocean.Four hours and 13 minutes into the flight, Orion re-entered the atmosphere at 20,000 miles per hour and began to decelerate, splashing down on schedule at 11:29 a.m.
As temperatures reached 4,000 degrees around the crew module during re-entry, an expected signal blackout lasting a little more than two minutes occurred. A few minutes later, three parachutes deployed and the capsule landed upright on the Pacific Ocean as U.S. Navy ships moved in to recover it. The 75-mile descent to the ocean took 11 minutes and the capsule splashed down at about 20 miles per hour. “The spacecraft’s systems performed perfectly throughout the mission including two passes through the Van Allen radiation belts and the heat of re-entry,” NASA said on its website.
The spacecraft will eventually carry astronauts into space. Data gathered during Friday’s flight will be used toimprove the spacecraft’s design while building the first Space Launch System rocket, a heavy booster with enough power to send the next Orion around the moon for Exploration Mission-1. NASA plans to have astronauts fly Orion on the second SLS rocket in 2021 that will return humans to deep space for the first time in more than 40 years, with future missions to an asteroid and to Mars. See NASA’s video of launch preparations below and the liftoff video here.
