Orion is a multi-purpose crew vehicle (MPCV) that will take astronauts to the moon and asteroids. Its first test launch will be next year (2013). It is expected to be a safe answer to multiple missions using efficient technology built by NASA. It will also have the capability of backing up cargo and crew delivery to the International Space Station (ISS).
The MPCV head office is at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. It is the home of America’s Astronaut Corps And Mission Control. The center will supervise crew training, flight operations, and spacesuits. It will also overlook the simulated flights of Orion.
Many tests for safe human fights have been made on Orion. The vehicle has a launch abort system that is proven to work if it is necessary to stop the countdown process. It is also designed to handle long-duration missions. They made parachute tests, launch abort system motor tests, air bag drop tests, altitude control motor tests, and pad abort tests. The pad abort 1 flight test was at White Sands Missile Range near Las Cruces, New Mexico. The MPCV was assembled at Lockheed Martin’s Testing Facility in Colorado.
On Tuesday, December 20, 2011 a simulated test of the Orion parachutes was made in Yuma, Arizona. A C-130 plane dropped a parachute carrying a simulated Orion vehicle at the altitude of 25,000 feet above the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Grounds. One of the tests used only two main parachutes instead of three to prove it could be done without an accident. Orion landed on the desert floor at the speed of 33 feet per second, which is the fastest it is designed to handle. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio will be a partner in the development of the crew and service modules and spacecraft adapter.
An Orion drop test was made on January 6, 2012. It was the end of several tests of varying degrees of velocity, entry angle, wind speed, height of waves, etc. The last test was for the severest cases. The speed of the vehicle was 47 miles per hour.
MPCV’s crew module is much larger than the Apollo modules that reached the moon in 1969. The service module propels the spacecraft. It has room for food and water. There will be room for storing scientific instruments that will be used during the flights. The crew module is the only part of the multi-purpose crew vehicle that returns to the Earth after the mission is over.
The service module also provides altitude control and high altitude ascent aborts. It provides water, oxygen, and electricity for the astronauts and maintains the temperature. Scientific cargo can also be carried in the service module.
