Key test in NASA lunar program a success
NASA on Tuesday successfully conducted a test of the emergency abort system of the spacecraft it hopes will eventually take astronauts to the moon, a key step as the agency attempts to meet an ambitious White House mandate to get astronauts to the lunar surface within five years.
After blasting off from a launchpad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7 a.m., the Orion spacecraft initiated its escape system less than a minute into flight, jettisoning the crew capsule to safety. The capsule eventually landed in the Atlantic Ocean several miles off shore.
“By all first accounts, it was a perfect test,” said Mark Kirasich, Orion program manager.
No crew was aboard the spacecraft during what NASA called “a highflying, fast-paced trial.” But the ability to get astronauts away in case anything were to happen to the rocket below them is a key concern for NASA. Late last year, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin were saved after the abort system of their Russian spacecraft kicked in two minutes after liftoff.
That abort — dubbed “a successful failure” by officials — was “a good message to all of us: This is serious stuff,” NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik said in a prelaunch news conference. “We have to prepare for this even though there’s a low likelihood of it happening.”
NASA officials hailed Tuesday’s test as a key step in its quest to land humans on the moon by 2024 in a program it has dubbed Artemis.
In March, Vice President Mike Pence called for the agency to speed up its plans. Originally, NASA had been aiming to get astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028. But Pence directed the program to be accelerated by four years.