Delta 4 Heavy moved to launchpad for Orion flight
In preparation for a December test flight of the first Orion capsule, the Delta 4 Heavy rocket has been positioned on the launchpad.
The unmanned Dec. 4 mission, known as Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), is designed to test out Orion’s critical crew-safety systems, such as its thermal-protection gear. During the four-hour flight, the Orion capsule will fly 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) from Earth, then come speeding back into the planet’s atmosphere at about 20,000 mph (32,190 km/h) before splashing down softly in the Pacific Ocean, NASA officials said.
Forgive me if I remain decidedly unexcited. I still believe SLS to be an enormous waste of resources that would be better spent onother things.
Posted on the road south of Phoenix.
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Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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In preparation for a December test flight of the first Orion capsule, the Delta 4 Heavy rocket has been positioned on the launchpad.
The unmanned Dec. 4 mission, known as Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), is designed to test out Orion’s critical crew-safety systems, such as its thermal-protection gear. During the four-hour flight, the Orion capsule will fly 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) from Earth, then come speeding back into the planet’s atmosphere at about 20,000 mph (32,190 km/h) before splashing down softly in the Pacific Ocean, NASA officials said.
Forgive me if I remain decidedly unexcited. I still believe SLS to be an enormous waste of resources that would be better spent onother things.
Posted on the road south of Phoenix.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I need a bit of help.
I can not find any explanation of just how the Orion capsule is to be used as a deep space vehicle.
Is it just a jumped up version of the Apollo style system?
Were as the re-entry vehicle(Orion) is just the temporary living/re-entry module and not intended as a long term living module.
Does it just separate from the rest of the rocket and turn around to re-dock with the real deep space module?
And if that is how its intended to work how is it any different than the SpaceX crew craft, or even the Dream Chaser? They can both be flown exactly the same way.
The capsule (Orion) is demarcated by the reentry heat sheild onthe bottom, just like Apollo and Dragon. The Service Module (maybe made by ESA based on ATV) is discarded and has no habitable space.
Orion is bigger than Apollo, and a lot bigger than Dragon internally. Nonetheless, one room, and not a lot of room for a multi-month mission. Even if it had life support for it.
Usual proposed missions suggest it would dock to something else to provide extra hab space, depending on the mission. Maybe two Orions docked to a hab module for redundancy.
Two months until launch. I didn’t realize that these rockets sat out there waiting for so long.
So like I thought, it really isn’t anything more than what we have working already. At a far cheaper price. Far Far cheaper.
So since it has to have the very same docking system as everything else we can use all the other vehicles to do its job. At far cheaper price and faster.
Rockets only wait for the government! Mr. Musk launches his as soon as they’re ready.
Only 20,000 MPH? Apollo capsules were tested to over 25,000 MPH and they only went to the Moon. Sounds like Orion can’t hack the higher speeds needed for deep-space missions.