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NASA tested its Orion spacecraft ahead of its planned trip to the Moon. The space agency simulated the extreme conditions the capsule could experience during a launch abort scenario when it would need to push itself and its crew away from the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
NASA recently completed an 11-month crew module test campaign to ensure Orion is ready for the Artemis 2 mission, which will send a crew of four astronauts around the Moon and back. A team of engineers put Orion’s Environmental Test Article (ETA) through a grueling series of tests at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, simulating emergency scenarios during launch. Orion is designed to separate from the SLS rocket and land safely in the ocean during a launch abort scenario with astronauts on board.
“This event would be the maximum stress and highest load that any of the systems would see,” Robert Overy, director of the Orion ETA project at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, said in a statement. statement. “We are taking a proven vehicle from a successful flight and pushing it to the limit. “The safety of the astronaut crew depends on this test campaign.”
During testing, NASA engineers simulated the noise levels of a launch abort scenario, as well as the electromagnetic effects of lightning strikes. The slow-motion video (above) shows Orion’s docking module and parachute covers, as well as five airbags on top of the spacecraft inflating upon landing and being ejected. This process is necessary to deploy the spacecraft’s parachute system and deploy the airbags, which are designed to ensure a safe ocean landing for the crew.
It appears that the Orion module passed the test. “It’s been a successful test campaign,” Overy said. “The data matched the prediction models and everything worked as expected after being subjected to nominal acoustic and launch disruption levels. “We are still analyzing data, but preliminary results show that the vehicle and facilities performed as expected.”
NASA has been preparing for this test for more than a decade. The space agency built the Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility, the world’s most powerful spacecraft acoustic test chamber, in 2011 for this specific test campaign. “These tests are absolutely critical because we have to complete them all to say that the spacecraft design is safe and we are ready to fly a crew for the first time on Artemis II,” Michael See, ETA vehicle manager in the Orion Program of NASA. he said in a statement. “This is the first time we have been able to test a spacecraft on the ground in such an extreme abort-level acoustic environment.”
In November 2022, Orion launched on a 1.4 million mile round trip to the Moon. The Artemis 1 mission was an uncrewed test flight of the capsule to prepare for its successor, Artemis 2. The mission was considered a success, despite an unexpected performance of Orion’s heat shield during reentry. Artemis 2 was originally scheduled to launch in September 2025, but a recent schedule delay pushed Orion’s crewed journey to April 2026. The mission is intended to lead to Artemis 3, the first human landing on the Moon since Apollo. . Artemis 3 was also delayed until mid-2027.
NASA’s Artemis program has been a bit rocky, with the space agency racing to reach the lunar surface before China, but problems with its SLS rocket, Orion’s heat shield and a host of other problems have plagued the lunar program. , causing several delays and cost overruns. Fortunately, Orion is now prepared to move away from the rocket in case of emergency.
