Orion's Flight Was a Grand Success, Watch it Here

It's been said a lot this year, especially when it comes to advances in space technology, but it won't hurt to say it again: we did it! NASA's first test flight of the Orion was a grand success, with the experimental deep space vehicle making a "bullseye" splashdown 600 miles southwest of San Diego in the Pacific Ocean.

"Today's flight test of Orion is a huge step for NASA and a really critical part of our work to pioneer deep space on our Journey to Mars," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement today. "The teams did a tremendous job putting Orion through its paces in the real environment it will endure as we push the boundary of human exploration in the coming years."

Of course, as it always is with spaceflight, this success didn't come easy. The initial Thursday launch attempt was delayed after an off-course vessel wandered into the launch danger zone. Then, mechanical trouble with the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket's fill-and-drain valves became apparent, scrubbing the launch.

However, by Friday morning, these issues had been resolved, and the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) began with a flawless liftoff. (Scroll to read on...)

[Credit: NASA / Kennedy Space Center]

During this time, NASA reported that the experimental launch abort system (LAS) - a system that will reportedly make Orion the "the safest spacecraft ever built" - jettisoned effortlessly, achieving one of the main goals of the mission.

"Orion traveled twice through the Van Allen belt where it experienced high periods of radiation, and reached an altitude of 3,600 miles above Earth. Orion also hit speeds of 20,000 mph and weathered temperatures approaching 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it entered Earth's atmosphere," the NASA team reported, adding that this went exactly as planned.

The spacecraft also experienced a brief blackout in communications during its 20,000 mph re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, as a wave of superhot plasma (4,000 degrees F) completely encased the craft for about 2.5 minutes. However, this was expected, and the craft's black base heat shielding tiles, just like those once used on NASA's retired space shuttles, performed up to par.

Orion's drogue and new heavy payload parachutes also proved their meddle today, deploying exactly when planned and slowing the unmanned capsule to a gentle 20-mph splashdown. (Scroll to read on...)

[Credit: NASA/ Kennedy Space Center]

"It is hard to have a better day than today," Mark Geyer, Orion program manager, said in a statement.

"We really pushed Orion as much as we could to give us real data that we can use to improve Orion's design going forward," he added. "In the coming weeks and months we'll be taking a look at that invaluable information and applying lessons learned to the next Orion spacecraft already in production for the first mission atop the Space Launch System rocket."

So with EFT-1 a great success, what's in store for Orion next?

NASA and Lockheed Martin engineers are already pouring over the test data, looking for how they can improve design, even as they work to build an Orion for Exploration Mission-1, or EM-1. This will be the first test mission with astronauts onboard, as the craft was designed to carry humans far beyond our moon.

That mission will also be the maiden voyage of NASA's flagship rocket, the massive SLS, which the agency hopes will help launch men and women towards Mars one day soon.

"I don't think you could find an astronaut who wouldn't be excited to fly Orion," added astronaut Rex Walheim, former space shuttle pilot and Orion mission specialist. "This is true exploration."

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