Exploration Flight Test-1: Orion's "Trial by Fire" is Underway

The first Orion crew exploration vehicle soared into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., just after sunrise on Friday, initiating Exploration Flight Test-1, a much anticipated $370 million, 4 1/2 hour audition of the NASA/Lockheed Martin spacecraft envisioned to start humans on future missions of deep space exploration.

Efforts to launch the mission on Thursday were scrubbed by two sluggish propellant valves in the Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle's first stage and out-of-limit winds at Launch Complex 37.

The United Launch Alliance two stage rocket shouldering the unpiloted four seat capsule rose from Launch Complex 37 on Friday at 7:05 a.m., EST, the opening of a 159 minute launch window and climbed steeply to the East on the first of two orbits around the Earth.

Launch teams managed a smooth countdown Friday, after assessing sluggish liquid hydrogen fill and drain values in the Delta IV's core stage on Thursday. The sluggishness in their closing was attributed to an extended exposure to the liquid hydrogen propellant's minus 423 degree F temperatures, prompted by a succession of weather delays.

The heavily sensored capsule is scheduled to receive a second orbit boost from the Delta IV Heavy second stage, rising to a peak altitude of 3,630 miles before making a high velocity descent through Earth's atmosphere and a complex descent under parachute for a Pacific Ocean splashdown. The recovery zone extends about 600 miles southwest of San Diego.

The capsule's path will take it through the Earth's Van Allen Radiation Belt twice, challenging the ruggedness of on board avionics.

A U. S. Navy, NASA, Lockheed Martin recovery team was assembled on the USS Anchorage and USNS Salvor amphibious and salvage vessels to retrieve the bobbing 19,000 pound capsule and its collection of parachutes.

Thousands of engineers and technicians, employed by suppliers from across the U. S., as well as NASA and Lockheed Martin, expect to sift through black box as well as recorded operational data to render a final assessment: Is the capsule that has been under development since 2006 at a cost of about $1 billion annually worthy of starting human explorers on missions to the lunar environs, an asteroid and perhaps Mars.

"I think we will see an absolutely incredible performance from our prima ballerina," predicted NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, minutes before the lift off.

"Everything may not go right. But everything that does go right means we have bought down one more risk in this vehicle," said Bolden, who believes Orion will start U. S. astronauts on missions to Mars in the mid-2030s. "That's what today is all about. I think it's a big day for the world and for people who know and like space."

The International Space Station crew followed the flight as well.

"It's a thrilling prospect," Barry "Butch" Wilmore, ISS commander, said on the eve of the Orion flight and the mission’s potential contributions to human deep space exploration . "Who knows where it will take us, where we will go?"

More than 20,000 space agency, contractor and other personnel with ties to NASA's human exploration endeavors were gathered at the CCAFS and Kennedy for Orion's orbital debut. Hundreds more filled the hotels, motels and campgrounds along Florida's Space Coast for the opportunity to witness the lift off, rivaling public interest in the departure of NASA's final shuttle mission in July 2011.

"This is like taking a big final exam," noted Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator of human exploration and operations, on Thursday. "It's show time. You never really know how the vehicle will perform until you take it to flight."

With a favorable outcome, Orion could fly again unpiloted in 2018 atop the first launch of NASA's Space Launch System. NASA astronauts could join a third test flight in 2021, a mission that would take them looping around the moon and back, a journey not taken by humans since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Immediately after lifting off, Orion got to work on a short list of flight objectives: achieving an initial 115 by 552 mile high orbit, shedding 17 capsule components including the massive Launch Abort System and protective parachute covers; subjecting the heat shield to the 20,000 mile per hour velocities and 4,000 degree temperatures F. that approximate a lunar return; and a re-entry featuring the deployment of 11 parachutes to cushion a survivable splashdown.

Two hours into the flight, the Delta IV's second stage was to ignite for 4 minutes, 40 seconds to raise the capsule's altitude to an apogee of 3,630 miles to set up the desired re-entry conditions.

Anchorage, Salvor, two Navy P-3 Orion aircraft, three helicopters and a NASA Ikhana drone will be on station in and above the recovery zone with well rehearsed crews and operators prepared to mount and document the recovery.

Once cleared by NASA lead flight director in NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston, the recovery forces plan to maneuver Orion into the well deck of the Anchorage, then head for U. S. Navy Base San Diego.