NASA marked a major milestone Friday, 12/05/2014 as the Orion spacecraft completed its first unmanned voyage to space, traveling farther in history than any spacecraft designed for astronauts has been in more than four decades. According to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, the 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”. “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.”
Orion reach speeds of 20,000 mph and weathered temperatures approaching 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it entered Earth’s atmosphere.
“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,” said Mark Geyer, Orion Program manager. “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.”
Source: NASA.org
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