What is Orion?
Orion is the vehicle being developed by NASA to carry humans deeper into space than they’ve ever gone before.
Having already completed one successful spaceflight, the next flight of Orion will be integrated with the service module which is needed to support humans in deep space missions. The service module will provide power, air and water, and is being developed by the European Space Agency (ESA).
A critical component of the service module is the Orbital Maneuvering System engine, which has been used successfully on previous space shuttle flights.
Orion’s upcoming mission, known as Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), Orion will launch on top of NASA’s new rocket, Space Launch System (SLS). The mission will launch in 2018 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This will be the first time SLS will have flown, but it won’t be the first time Orion will have traveled in space. In 2014, Orion flew in space for its test flight, Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1).
On EM-1, Orion will travel thousands of miles past the moon, father than any human-rated spacecraft. Flying about 62 miles above the moon’s surface, Orion will then use the gravity of the moon to send it into an orbit approximately 40,000 miles away from the moon. The spacecraft’s systems will then be assessed.
The moon’s gravity and the service module engine will return the spacecraft to Earth. After reaching speeds of 25,000 miles per hour at temperatures around 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, Orion will splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Though EM-1 won’t have any humans onboard, the missions that follow will be manned. On this first integrated flight of Orion and SLS, the crew vehicle will spend the most time in space of any human-rated spacecraft without connecting to a space station.
During this upcoming mission, the Deep Space Network (DSN) will be used to communicate with Orion. It will be the first time in many decades that a vehicle for humans will communicate through DSN.
Through sending Orion into a deep space environment around and past the moon, technologies will be tested in this lunar proving ground which will later be used to practice operations needed for the journey to Mars.
To learn more about the new crew capsule, check out NASA.gov.