NASA Says Successful Orion Spacecraft Test Brings US Closer to Moon, Mars Missions
The United States successfully completed a test of the Orion spacecraft's launch abort system in the preparation for executing the future missions to the moon and Mars, NASA said in a press release on Tuesday
"NASA successfully demonstrated Tuesday the Orion spacecraft's launch abort system can outrun a speeding rocket and pull astronauts to safety during an emergency during launch," the release said. "The test is another milestone in the agency's preparation for Artemis missions to the Moon that will lead to astronaut missions to Mars."
NASA explained that during the roughly three-minute test, the Orion spacecraft traveled to an altitude of about six miles, at which point the abort sequence was triggered.
The abort system pulled the crew module away from the rocket, flipped the capsule to properly orient it and released the module for a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, NASA said.
A team of scientists analyzed data recording during the test to get additional insight on the abort system's performance, NASA added.
On May 31, NASA announced that three private US aerospace firms have been chosen to build and operate unmanned spacecraft that will begin exploring the lunar surface in September 2020 in preparation for a human landing.
The objective of the Artemis program is to land US astronauts on the Moon by 2024 and establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028.