AFP | Friday December 5, 2014 | 21:57 hrs
Cape Canaveral – The spacecraft NASA Orion, designed to carry humans into space, landed yesterday on the Pacific after a successful unmanned test flight, which serves as a test for possible missions to Mars.
Yesterday it was reported that engineer Peter H. Juárez and Chihuahua Curiel Juan Carlos Lopez helped prepare the voyage of the ship.
The launch took place at 07:05 pm yesterday from the Kennedy Space Center NASA Cape Canaveral (Florida). Four hours later, after orbiting the Earth twice, the capsule landed softly in the ocean a thousand miles from the Mexican coast of Baja California, three immense braking parachute.
“Here is your new spacecraft, America, “said NASA commentator Rob Navias, when pictures showed the capsule approaching the water.
Orion is the first US spacecraft designed to carry humans into space from the Apollo missions than four decades ago they took astronauts to the moon.
Its design recalls precisely the Apollo XI, who came to earth satellite in 1969.
As the Apollo, Orion comprises a series of main rocket, that drive into space, and a small capsule which constitutes the carrier would occupy in a future crews.
Navias described the test flight as “perfect” and as “a significant step for the space program” American.
In his second lap around the Earth, the capsule reached an altitude of 800 Km 5000, almost 14 times the altitude at which orbits the International Space Station (420 Km).
By 15:23 GMT, twenty minutes after reaching the highest altitude of his journey, Orion took off from the second stage of the Delta IV rocket and module service, to prepare for their return to Earth’s atmosphere.
The ship dropped more than 32 000 Km / h, 84% speed to reach a capsule returning from the moon. Ten minutes later, he splashed down gently.
Flight controllers said the vehicle is in stable condition and will soon be removed from the water by a panel of members of the NASA team, the US Navy and Lockheed Martin.
This first mission to assess the performance Orion space capsule to key challenges such as separation stage rocket, high radiation, the scorching heat (from 2000 to 200 ° C) before splashdown.
In addition to operating the parachutes and computers on board.
The ship also carried 200 thousand sensors to measure vibration, radiation and noise and temperature .
The successful launch by NASA serves as a palliative for the recent failures representing both private spaceflight accident occurred last October.
The rocket that propelled Orion however not share characteristics with the Antares rocket company Orbital Sciences, which erupted on October 28 shortly after his release.
Three days later a fatal accident cars ship SpaceShipTwo, the company Virgin Galactic, killing its two pilots.
“We live in an exciting time, as the success of this test brings us to the time when we can send humans to Mars,” said the director of the NASA, Charles Bolden.
An estimated first manned Orion is available in 2021 and then this capsule will carry humans to the moon, an asteroid or Mars in the following years.
The US plan to return with crews into space faces not only technical but also budgetary questions. (AFP)
No comments:
Post a Comment