Orion spacecraft recovery tested by joint industry government team
NewsAugust 11, 2014
LOS ANGELES. Lockheed Martin, NASA, and U.S. Navy personnel participated in a simulated ocean recovery of an Orion spacecraft test article to practice recovery techniques for retrieving the crew module after it splashes down following its first test flight later in 2014. The test enabled the team to evaluate procedures, hardware, and personnel responsible for making the recovery.
The test took place off the coast of San Clemente Island. During it Navy dive teams retrieved and positioned the Orion test article on the USS Anchorage via a Lockheed Martin built recovery cradle, recovery winch, and sea anchor. The data gathered during this phase of testing will help enable a safe and efficient recovery of the crew module and collection of flight test data after splashdown.
Orion will complete its first test flight, Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), on December 4, 2014. During EFT-1, the uncrewed spacecraft will launch aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket and will travel 3,600 miles beyond low Earth orbit—15 times further than the International Space Station. That same day, the Orion spacecraft will return to Earth at a speed of about 20,000 mph for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
The flight will give engineers data about systems critical to crew safety such as avionics, heat shield performance, separation events, and software performance, attitude control and guidance, parachute deployment, and recovery operations to validate designs of the spacecraft before it starts carrying humans to new destinations in deep space.
