Image Caption: An artist concept shows Orion as it will appear in space for the Exploration Flight Test-1 attached to a Delta IV second stage. Credit: NASA

NASA

The first spacecraft NASA has designed to fly astronauts beyond Earth orbit since the Apollo era is well on its way to making a flight test next year, agency officials said Wednesday. The mission is planned for launch in September 2014, and will see an Orion capsule orbit Earth without a crew and return through the atmosphere at speeds unseen since astronauts last returned from the moon in 1972.

Its a key element of our overall plan to get humans beyond Earth orbit as quickly as we can, said Dan Dumbacher, deputy associate administrator for NASAs Exploration Systems Development Division.

Exploration Flight Test (EFT)-1, will be the first chance engineers get to test Orions design in space. Flying atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket, the spacecraft will be pressurized as it would be if astronauts were onboard. It will orbit the Earth twice on a track that will take it more than 3,600 miles above us, about 15 times higher than the International Space Station.

From that height, Orion will be steered to a re-entry at speeds of about 20,000 mph, slamming into the atmosphere to test whether the heat shield will protect the spacecraft adequately.

It allows us to stress the heat shield in conditions that are very close to what we will see coming back from a region around the moon, said Mark Geyer, Orion program manager. This is going to help us make our heat shield lighter, safer and more reliable.

Launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the spacecraft will carry scores of instruments. Even the heat shield will have instruments to measure temperature and plasma flow around the spacecraft as it endures the searing conditions of high-speed reentry.

Engineers will use the readings to update computer models and refine designs for the spacecraft, ground support equipment and the in-development Space Launch System rocket. The agency also will provide the data to the agencys commercial partners developing their own spacecraft.

Orion will land under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean where recovery teams from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Department of Defense will retrieve it and return it to Florida.

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NASA's Orion Flight Test Launch On Course