The first full joint testing between NASA and the U.S. Navy of Orion
recovery procedures off the coast of California was suspended after the
team experienced issues with handling lines securing a test version of
Orion inside the well deck of the USS San Diego.
NASA and the Navy were conducting tests to prepare for recovery of
Orion after it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean at the end of its
first space flight, Exploration Flight Test-1, in September. The testing
was planned to allow teams to demonstrate and evaluate the processes,
procedures, hardware and personnel that will be needed for recovery
operations.
The lines were unable to support the tension caused by crew module
motion that was driven by wave turbulence in the well deck of the ship.
The team called off the week's remaining testing to allow engineers to
evaluate next steps.
The challenges that arose demonstrate why it is important to subject
Orion to tests in the actual environments that the spacecraft will
encounter.
"Even though the testing didn't go as we had planned, we're learning
lessons that will help us be better prepared to retrieve Orion after it
travels more than 3,600 miles into space and comes home," said Bill
Hill, assistant deputy associate administrator for exploration systems
development at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The Orion testing work
we do is helping us work toward sending humans to deep space."
The testing has provided important data that is being used to improve
recovery procedures and hardware ahead of Orion’s first flight test
this fall. Several of the test objectives were accomplished before the
remaining tests were called off, including successful recoveries of the
forward bay cover, parachute and demonstrations of the coordination
required between the team onboard the ship and mission control in
Houston.
Orion is America's new spacecraft that will take astronauts to
destinations not yet explored by humans, including an asteroid and Mars.
It will have an emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during
space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space. During
Exploration Flight Test-1, an uncrewed spacecraft will travel 15 times
farther than the International Space Station before returning to Earth
at speeds as fast as 20,000 mph and temperatures above 4,000 degrees
Fahrenheit to evaluate the spacecraft’s heat shield and other systems.
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