NASA's Orion completes historic flight, ushers in 'new era' - Washington Post (blog)

The towering rocket carrying NASA's new Orion spacecraft blasted off just after sunrise Friday in a historic test flight designed to ultimately bring humans to Mars.

The uncrewed spacecraft lifted off into a cloudy sky on schedule at 7:05 a.m. from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket, en route to a 4.5 hour flight that would take it twice around Earth and to an altitude of 3,600 miles. The launch came a day after the mission was delayed Thursday, when gusty winds and problems with some of fuel and drain valves on the rocket forced officials to try again Friday.

Before the flight Friday morning, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden predicted the flight would be 'an incredible success story for this agency and the country.'

He said officials were confident in the Delta IV rocket after the valve glitches Thursday. But he said he was especially excited to see the Lockheed Martin-manufactured Orion in action: 'I think we're going to see an absolutely incredible performance from our prima ballerina.'

The flight marked the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 that a spacecraft designed for human travel left Low Earth Orbit. Since then, human flights have been restricted to Low Earth Orbit, home to the International Space Station. But Friday's flight would go 15 times as far.

NASA plans another test flight, without astronauts in 2018, before flying humans aboard Orion in about 2021.

Sometime in the 2020s, NASA plans to capture an asteroid with a robotic spacecraft, then drag it to the moon's orbit where it would connect with the Orion. Astronauts would then be able to take samples from the asteroid.

'Just the idea of having a human around the moon interacting with an asteroid -- that's mind boggling,' Bolden said Friday. 'We are very confident we can do this.'

The big target, however, remains Mars, which NASA says astronauts could reach sometime in the 2030s.

While the Orion was initially part of a program, called Constellation, designed to return to moon, its mission changed after the Obama administration killed Constellation and made Mars the goal. Friday's mission used the Delta IV, made by United launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. But future Orion missions would use the new Space Launch System rocket, which is still being developed.

Friday's mission was designed to test some of Orion's riskiest systems, especially its heat shield, which would need to withstand temperatures as high as 4,000 degrees when the capsule hits the atmosphere traveling at about 20,000 mph. Another big test would be the series of parachutes designed to slow the capsule so that it could splash down safely in the Pacific Ocean off the Baja California coast.

The test flight comes after the October explosion of the unmanned Orbital Sciences rocket that was to supply the space station and the recent crash of the Virgin Galactic spacecraft that killed the co-pilot. Officials said before Friday's test flight that they were well aware with the risks involved in space flight.

Mark Geyer, NASA's Orion program manager said earlier this week that he hoped 'everything is perfect' and that there are 'high-fives' all around afterward. But officials will be looking for the things that aren't perfect, so they 'can learn and fix it before we put people on board.'

Entities 0 Name: Orion Count: 8 1 Name: NASA Count: 6 2 Name: Low Earth Orbit Count: 2 3 Name: moon Count: 2 4 Name: Obama Count: 1 5 Name: Pacific Ocean Count: 1 6 Name: Lockheed Martin Count: 1 7 Name: Boeing Count: 1 8 Name: Orbital Sciences Count: 1 9 Name: Cape Canaveral Count: 1 10 Name: Baja California Count: 1 11 Name: Mark Geyer Count: 1 12 Name: Charlie Bolden Count: 1 13 Name: United launch Alliance Count: 1 14 Name: Delta IV Heavy Count: 1 15 Name: Earth Count: 1 16 Name: Bolden Count: 1 17 Name: Fla. Count: 1 18 Name: Virgin Galactic Count: 1 19 Name: Delta IV Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/12nF4J3 Title: NASA Is Launching a Spacecraft That Will Take Humans to Mars Description: NASA is launching its boldest test flight in decades this week. An unmanned capsule will head off on Thursday to reach a distance of 3,600 miles from Earth-the farthest space mission with a craft designed to accommodate humans since the final Apollo 17 trip to the moon in 1972.