NASA’s Orion Spacecraft Hits Milestone with Successful Power-up Test

NASA is reporting that last week a major milestone was reached in the next generation of the manned space flight and exploration program at the Kennedy Space Center. The agency’s Orion Spacecraft, its first-ever deep space craft, was successfully powered up for the first time by technicians.

Orion’s vehicle management computer and newly designed power and data distribution system operated nominally during the recent test. This successful test indicates that the agency is on track for the first flight or Orion scheduled for the fall of 2014.

At that time, all of Orion’s avionics systems will be put to the test on what will be dubbed Exploration Flight Test-1(EFT-1).

“Orion will take humans farther than we’ve ever been before, and in just about a year we’re going to send the Orion test vehicle into space,” said Dan Dumbacher, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development in Washington.

“The work we’re doing now, the momentum we’re building, is going to carry us on our first trip to an asteroid and eventually to Mars. No other vehicle currently being built can do that, but Orion will, and EFT-1 is the first step.”

During EFT-1, the Orion will make two orbits of the Earth over the course of about 4 hours. Unmanned during this first test flight, Orion will orbit from an altitude of 3,600 miles up which is some 15 times higher than the orbit of the International Space Station.

The design of Orion will enable to the United States and mankind, to embark on an entirely new human space exploration capability. Orion offers NASA the flexibility to launch both crew and cargo missions into space.

More importantly, the Orion offers the ability to launch manned missions beyond low-Earth orbit to begin a new era of missions of exploration throughout our solar system.

“It’s been an exciting ride so far, but we’re really getting to the good part now,” said Mark Geyer, Orion program manager. “This is where we start to see the finish line. Our team across the country has been working hard to build the hardware that goes into Orion, and now the vehicle and all our plans are coming to life.”

For the EFT-1 test flight, NASA will perch Orion atop a Delta IV heavy rocket. However for the first deep space mission, Exploration Mission-1 in 2017, the agency will be using its new Space Launch System rocket currently in development.