WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, NM - NASA successfully conducted a dramatic test of an escape system for future manned space capsules in the New Mexico desert this morning, culminating a four-year development effort to design, build and test an escape rocket for the first time in more than 40 years. Today's $220 million Pad Abort 1 test took place form a new launch pad at Launch Complex 32 at the White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico.
MORE IMAGES PAD ABORT-1 FLIGHT SEQUENCE PAD ABORT-1 LAUNCH PHOTOS DOCUMENTS PAD ABORT-1 TEST MEDIA DAY BRIEFING PAD ABORT-1 TEST FACT SHEET PAD ABORT-1 TEST TEAM PAD ABORT-1 POSTER PAD ABORT-1 POSTER (LARGE) NASA WHITE SANDS TEST FACILITY FACT SHEET WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE FACT SHEET FREE VIDEO PA-1 LAUNCH REPLAYS • WATCH | DOWNLOAD PA-1 LAUNCH • WATCH | DOWNLOAD PA-1 BACKGROUND VIDEO • WATCH | DOWNLOAD ALL-ACCESS MEMBERS VIDEO PA-1 POST-LAUNCH PRESS CONFERENCE • DOWNLOAD COMPLETE PA-1 LAUNCH NASA TV COVERAGE REPLAY • DOWNLOAD PA-1 TEST VIDEO B-ROLL • DOWNLOAD Powered by a four-nozzle solid-fuel main motor, the LAS escape rocket ignited right on time at 9 a.m. EDT, its half-million pound sof thrust accelerating a mockup Orion capsule to a velocity of 450 mph in just 2.5 seconds. If it had been an actual abort with a crew inside, they would have felt a sudden acceleration of 16 G's, sixteen times the force of Earth's gravity. As the primary escape motor burned, an attitude control system above it kept the vehicle stable during ascent using a system of 8 throttleable nozzles around the top section of the escape tower. Six seconds after liftoff and an altitude of approximately 3900 feet, the motor burned out and the capsule/tower combiunation coasted to an altitude about 6000 above ground level. As it reached apogee, the attitude control motor then turned the vehicle to a capsule-first attitude, with its heat shield facing forward. At that point, another four-nozzle rocket motor fired to pull the tower free of the capsule and make clearance for the parachutes to deploy. Right on cue, the drogue parachutes deployed and, seconds later, three 116-foot diameter main parachutes were deployed and opened in two stages - partially to slow the craft into a stable descent and then fully opening to slow the capsule for a soft touchdown on the ground. Two minutes and fourteen seconds after the test began, it ended with a gentle 16 mph landing a little over a mile, 6919 feet, from the launching point. "Beautiful flight," remarked a flight controller as the Orion mockup touched down, its billowy red and white parachutes gently floating to the ground. The Launch Abort System is the first new escape rocket system to be developed since hte Apollo program. It's also the first escape system since Apollo that would be able to save an astronaut crew from a launch accident at any point from the time the crew gets in the vehicle on the launch pad through, at the very least, the entire first stage of launch. "There are two parts of launch abort," said Mark Geyer, NASA's Orion Project Manager. "One, you need to get out of the way quick. Two, you need to make sure you can steer it so you can safely get out of the way and three, you need to make sure you have a chance to get the parachutes out. So, no matter what the size is, you've got to integrate that system." By contrast, the space shuttle astronauts would have to get out of their seats, open the hatch and walk or run off the orbiter in the case of an emergency on the launch pad. During launch, there is no escape until after the solid rocket boosters are jettisoned. At that point, various abort scenarios come into play, ranging from returning to the runway at Kennedy Space Center, landing at one of several emergency landing sites in Europe, reaching a less-than-nominal orbit and returning after one trip around the Earth or, in a worst-case scenario, bailing out of the orbiter. The bailout option was added after the Challenger accident. It requires that the orbiter be in a stable gliding descent and when it glides below 50,000 feet, the crew can deploy a pole-like device that they can then slide down and then parachute to the ground or ocean below. The pole is required in order to keep aerodynamic forces from carrying a free-falling astronaut into the wing or tail of the orbiter. All of the abort and escape options for the shuttle are risky, even downright dangerous, and only cover a small range of possible scenarious that would require the crew to escape from the orbiter or perish with it. The biggest drawback, however, is the lack of any abort or escape option before two minutes after launch. As a result of the shuttle's complicated systems and convoluted abort procedures, the system as a whole places astronauts at between a 1-in-200 and 1-in-400 risk of dying during any given launch. Officially, NASA believes the risk to be around 1-in-207 The over-riding goal behind development of the LAS system is to reduce that risk by a factor of ten. LAS is being developed as part of NASA's Constellation program to replace the space shuttle for low Earth orbit manned space transportation and also return astronauts to the Moon. President Obama's Fiscal Year 2011 budget request calls for cancelling most of Constellation. Only Orion would be spared, and that only as an assured rescue ship for the space station that would be launched unmanned and, therefore, not need an escape rocket. However, NASA officials have stressed that the system could be applied to other spacecraft of the capsule type, such as the ones being developed by private industry already. (The Spacearium / SpaceflightNews.net)
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