NASA conducted its Exploration Flight Test-1 of the Orion exploration crew vehicle, which launched this morning aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The unmanned flight test lasted approximately four and a half hours and ended with a successful splashdown of Orion in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. The test, which sent the Orion capsule more than 3,600 miles above the surface of the Earth, will provide valuable data that will allow NASA to validate key design features of the spacecraft and test its performance in the unforgiving environment of space. Orion, along with the Space Launch System, will provide America with new deep space exploration capabilities that will take astronauts far beyond the International Space Station. Orion’s next flight will be an uncrewed mission around the moon, and is scheduled to launch aboard the SLS during Exploration Mission-1 by 2018.
Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) said, “I want to congratulate NASA, the United Launch Alliance, and the Orion contractor team led by Lockheed Martin on an outstanding flight test of the Orion crew capsule. The Orion spacecraft will be an essential element of America’s human space flight capabilities and will allow our astronauts to explore far beyond low Earth orbit. Today’s test flight was a critical step in the development of Orion, and the invaluable data it yields will help us continue to develop the technology and infrastructure necessary to land a human on Mars. It was the hard work and devotion of NASA employees and contractors from hundreds of businesses across the country that made today's success possible, and it demonstrates that America's best days in space exploration still lie ahead of us."
