CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — If there ever was a modern-day "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" moment, this is it.
At 7:05 a.m. EST Thursday, a two-hour launch window will open for NASA's Orion mission Experimental Flight Test 1. Weather forecasts, so far, are promising, with a slight chance that precipitation or winds could delay the launch.
However, if all goes as planned, the U.S. will send Orion further into space than any NASA spacecraft built for humans has ventured in more than 40 years.
It will be a huge moment of pride for many in Colorado. Orion was designed and built by Littleton-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems, has antennae and cameras from Broomfield-based Ball Aerospace, and will hurtle into space on a Delta IV Heavy rocket, made by Centennial-based ULA.
Many of those who worked on Orion in some manner are gathered at Kennedy Space Center, packing the causeway overlooking Space Launch Complex 37, giddily awaiting the moment all their hard work pays off with the very tangible benefits of roaring rockets, and billowing smoke and flame. These include Lockheed Martin senior engineer Marleen Martinez , and Phillip Bailey, President of Deep Space Systems, a company that worked on Orion's avionics systems.
Thousands of others have poured into the Cape Canaveral area in recent days, resulting in booked hotels and frequent random high-fives between strangers sharing a common bond through their love of space. It is an exciting time.
Orion is part of NASA's blueprint to take humans into deep space. Think of it like a basic model vehicle — if "basic" means designed by rocket scientists — that can be used for many different types of exploration missions.
EFT-1 will allow specific tests to be run on spacecraft separation systems, descent, landing and recovery, and radiation — data from which will be used to guide the development of the next iteration of the spacecraft.
Of special concern is Orion's heat shield, designed and built by Lockheed Martin engineers in Waterton Canyon. It is designed to protect the spacecraft, and its eventual crew, from the blazing hot temperatures experienced upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
Temperatures on the outside of the crew module will reach about 4,000 degrees Farenheit as Orion re-enters Earth's upper atmosphere. The goal is to keep the crew quarters a comfortable 72 degrees Farenheit.
NASA has said humans will go to an asteroid in 2025 and to Mars sometime in the 2030s. The next Orion launch following EFT-1 will not be until Experimental Mission One in 2018, and that one will not be manned, either. It will, however, launch aboard the new Space Launch System — the next generation of heavy-lift rocket being developed by NASA.
This pace has been criticized for being too slow, however, there is a method to the madness, said Larry Price, Lockheed's deputy director of the Orion mission.
"If we can do it in a very metered, methodical way, we can get there safely, faster and at less cost," said Larry Price, Lockheed's deputy director of the Orion mission. "This team, with this flight especially, is able to demonstrate as being a really good way to take a very modest amount of money and be able to move the world forward."
Orion's 4 hour, 24 minute journey will include two passes of Earth — one at an altitude of 552 miles, and another at 3,609 miles. The pass will take Orion twice through the Van Allen Radiation Belts, which can wreak havoc on the spacecraft's systems.
Finally, if all goes well, Orion will splash down about 600 miles off the coast of Baja California. Orion will be recovered by a highly-trained and specialized team, and will be returned to Kennedy Space Center shortly before Christmas.
Laura Keeney: lkeeney@denverpost.com, 303-954-1337 or http://ift.tt/1wwekmq
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