The first flight of Orion. NASA’s success, but it does not take this ship … – Gadzeto Mania

For us the first flight of the Orion spacecraft. This is the first in the history of manned ship capable of long flights into space, reaching beyond the orbit of the Moon.

A successful flight

A little after 13 Polish time on Friday, December 5, started the first mission spacecraft Orion. The ship was lifted into space by a Delta IV Heavy rocket. After the elevation of the low Earth orbit Orion circled the planet, and then – thanks to the drive provided by the last module rockets – reached the point located about 5.8 thousand. kilometers from Earth . From 42 years no spacecraft capable of transporting people not flown so far.

During the flight on board the Orion crew instead of were about 1.2 thousand. various sensors , monitoring all aspects of the space flight, including going through one of the Van Allen belts, which increased the space radiation.

The high orbit Orion circled the Earth twice and then started back. During deorbitacji propelled itself to 32 thousand. km / h , and because of the great speed surface ship entering the atmosphere warmed up to about 2.2 thousand. degrees Celsius.

Developers Orion chose for him a way of landing, tested more than 40 years ago during the Apollo program – and discarded after braking parachutes ship splashed down, falling into the Pacific Ocean about 1,000 miles from San Diego, and yet only 2.5 km the intended point of impact. During the mission, all systems work properly , and the first flight of the Orion successful.

Two speeches

The mission is the culmination of many years of work. In the history memorable speech of 1961, in which President Kennedy outlined bold plan to explore the Universe and landing on the moon.

I am convinced that our nation should make it a goal to the end of the decade put a man on the moon and bring him safely back to Earth.

Ten years ago, US President George W. Bush gave a similar, though perhaps less well-known speech , in which he presented a multi-stage plan for exploration of the cosmos, with the planned end of the shuttle era and humans back to the moon.

Developed by Lockheed Martin Orion project in 2006, defeated the other competitors and was selected by NASA as future spacecraft . NASA Orion Building a baked several birds with one stone:

• has created a functional successor to the shuttle, so you could delete the program Orbital Space Plane
• has secured the possibility of transporting people and equipment (creation of an unmanned version of Orion) on the ISS and independence in this regard from the Russians,
• has built a spaceship capable of performing long, manned missions – to the moon, and in the longer term, as part of a mission to Mars .

big brother Apollo

In terms of overall design resembles an enlarged vessel Orion Apollo, but the capsule, which flew on Friday at a distance 5800 km from the Earth was essentially things only part of the Orion configuration target .

It was built by the Americans, part of a crew – cab, where the flight will be people. It is necessary to have the so-called. part of the service, the second module, jumper and drive needed during a long mission equipment.

This is the module will be the work of the European Space Agency, and is likely to be built based on the European ATV spacecraft , which currently flies missions of supply to the ISS.

used during the test Delta IV Heavy rocket is also not a target carrier of Orion. This role is planned for SLS rocket, but its development, due to the continuous budget cuts, very prolonged. If you manage to keep the current schedule, the SLS first flight will take place only after three years .

This is it?

Finally, it is worth considering why in the 60s. from idea to fly to the moon was enough only eight years old , and now, with a much superior technology, repeat this feat will take much more time?

The answer seems to be greater at the time propensity to take risks . Policy makers were willing to risk life astronauts, just to confirm their primacy in the global space race. I also think that at a higher risk of failure was also prepared the then public opinion. Nowadays, the possible failure of acceptance and victims seems much lower than at the height of the Cold War.

Reached Apollo 8 from the water aboard the aircraft carrier Yorktown

It is worth noting, that the mission of the Orion – although undoubtedly an important success – it really replay Apollo 8 , which took place in 1968, in addition to the three astronauts on board. Importantly, although the media present as the ship Orion, which fly to Mars, this is not true – Orion is to be used during space missions to Mars as a taxi, delivering astronauts to the right of the ship, which set off on a long journey.

In this context, the planned , manned flight to Mars seems to be very remote project . If all goes according to plan, and there will be no delays, NASA intends to send a manned mission to the Red Planet until the fourth decade of the twenty-first century.