At 7:05am Eastern time (12:05pm UK time) this morning, NASA's Orion spacecraft will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida. This will be the first test flight for Orion, which will ultimately take NASA astronauts to Mars; it is, in short, the long-awaited continuation of the USA's human spaceflight program. Below, you can watch a live video feed of the launch - and trust me, with the Delta IV Heavy being one of the most powerful rockets ever built, you will want to watch this launch.
Currently, at the time of publishing, all systems are go for the Orion launch; fueling of the Delta IV rocket is complete, and the weather at the launch site is fine. Launch should go ahead at 7:05am, or very close to it.
Live video feed
If you're tuning in before 7am, NASA TV is actually quite interesting - just now they had a live interview with two American astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station. There's also lots of background info about NASA's overarching plans for space travel. Basically, if you're into science, technology, or space exploration, it's worth watching the live video feed before, during, and after the launch.
Orion, NASA's vehicle to Mars
At this point, you might be wondering why there's such a furore surrounding this first launch of Orion. In short, Orion is NASA's first manned spacecraft since the Space Shuttle, which debuted way back in 1981. Perhaps more importantly, Orion will be the first US spacecraft to take humans beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO) since the Apollo missions - which wrapped up 40 years ago.
For more details of today's test flight, read our detailed breakdown of the four-and-a-half-hour flight. Orion will orbit the Earth twice, before reentering the atmosphere at 20,000 mph - a high velocity that's necessary for adequate testing of Orion's heat shields. If everything goes to plan today, there'll be another test flight in 2017 - powered by NASA's new Space Launch System rocket.
We'll update this story over the next few hours, before, during, and after Orion's first flight - stay tuned! The Orion capsule is outfitted with a bunch of cameras, incidentally, so we can expect some amazing photos of Earth over the next few hours.
Entities 0 Name: Orion Count: 11 1 Name: NASA Count: 7 2 Name: Earth Count: 2 3 Name: USA Count: 1 4 Name: Cape Canaveral Count: 1 5 Name: Florida Count: 1 6 Name: American Count: 1 7 Name: US Count: 1 8 Name: UK Count: 1 9 Name: Delta Count: 1 10 Name: Delta IV Heavy Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1BcWOoS Title: Crew Capsule Set to Launch to Apollo-Era Distances for First Time in 42 Years Description: The Orion spacecraft could eventually take astronauts to an asteroid or Mars CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.-NASA's Kennedy Space Center here has been relatively quiet since the space shuttles retired three years ago. But now the site is bustling with media, top NASA officials are traveling to Florida, and engineers are busy readying the launchpad to blast off a brand-new spaceship.
Post a Comment for "Watch NASA Orion's second launch attempt (live video) - ExtremeTech"