Article courtesy of Las Cruces Sun-News
By Steve Ramirez
A standing ovation for Don Reed, manager of the Orion Flight Test Office, and the word “flawless” summed up the feelings of Thursday’s successful test of Orion’s pad abort system, at White Sands Missile Range.
The 95-second launch went off without a hitch as a prototype of Orion’s crew capsule lifted off at exactly 7 a.m., flew to an altitude of 6,090 feet, rolled over on cue, and floated back to WSMR’s desert floor at a rate of 24 feet per second. Many of the approximately 1,100 people who have worked on the project for four years hugged each other, applauded and shouted encouragement, or shook hands as their efforts proved successful for technology never tested before.
“This truly talented team showed we can do it,” said Doug Cooke, manager of NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, referring to NASA, Lockheed Martin, Orbital Sciences Corp., Alliant Techsystems, Aerojet, Honeywell, and WSMR employees who collaborated on the launch. “It was a flawless flight, and it looked great.”
A smiling Reed said the launch abort system didn’t perform exactly as it should have – it was better. The 55.5-foot-tall launch abort vehicle and crew module mock-up reached a speed of about 445 mph in three seconds. Aboard the crew capsule were 692 sensors that will provide key data to engineers as further development of the spacecraft and its launch safety system continues.
“This is a very complex system, but it all came together,” Reed said. “The performance was outstanding.”
