Matthew Nelson
NASA is set to demonstrate the Orion spacecraft’s launch abort system on July 2 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Space News reported Sunday.
A reconstructed missile rocket motor will hold a mockup version of the Orion and take off to space for 55 seconds at an altitude of nearly 5.9 miles. Once the spacecraft reaches Mach 1.3 speed, its controllers will trigger the LAS to pull-out from the booster along with the capsule to simulate an abort operation.
After that, an abort motor will yield 400K pounds of thrust to eject the LAS from the booster, followed by an altitude control motor designed to reorient the capsule. A jettison motor will then pull the LAS from the capsule.
“The data that we’re collecting is crucial to verifying the models and show that the system is capable of protecting crew in the event of an emergency,†said Jennifer Brown, principal engineer for the LAS’ altitude control motor at Lockheed Martin.
