Watch NASA’s moon capsule violently separate during an abort test

NASA has put its Orion spacecraft to the test ahead of its planned trip to the moon. The space agency simulated the extreme conditions the capsule would encounter during a launch abort scenario when it would need to propel itself and its crew away from a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

NASA recently completed an 11-month test campaign for the crew module to ensure Orion is ready for the Artemis 2 mission, which will send a crew of four astronauts around the moon and back. A team of engineers subjected the Orion Environmental Test Article (ETA) to a series of rigorous tests at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, to simulate emergency scenarios during launch. Orion is designed to separate from an SLS rocket and land safely in the ocean during a launch abort scenario with astronauts on board.

“This event will be the maximum pressure and highest load that any of the systems will see,” Robert Overy, Orion Eta project manager at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, said in a report. statement. “We are taking a proven vehicle from a successful flight and pushing it to its limits. The safety of the astronaut crew depends on this test campaign.

During tests, NASA engineers simulated the noise levels of an abort scenario during launch, as well as the electromagnetic effects of lightning strikes. The slow-motion video (above) shows Orion’s docking module and parachute shrouds, as well as five airbags on top of the spacecraft that inflate as it falls, and is flung away. This process is necessary to open the spacecraft’s parachute system and deploy the airbags designed to ensure a safe landing for the crew in the ocean.

The Orion unit appears to have passed the test. “It was a successful test campaign,” Overy said. “The data matched the prediction models, and everything worked as expected after being subjected to nominal sound levels and aborted the launch. We are still analyzing the data, but preliminary results show that the vehicle and facility are performing as intended.

NASA has been preparing for this test for more than a decade. The space agency built the Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility, the world’s most powerful spacecraft acoustic test chamber, in 2011 for this specific test campaign. “These tests are critical because we have to complete all of these tests to say the spacecraft design is safe and we’re ready to fly a crew for the first time aboard Artemis II,” said Michael Seay, ETA vehicle manager for NASA’s Orion program. He said in a statement. “This is the first time we have been able to test a spacecraft on Earth in such a harsh acoustic environment.”

In November 2022, Orion was launched on a 1.4 million mile journey to the moon and back. The Artemis 1 mission was an unmanned test flight of the capsule to prepare for its successor, Artemis 2. The mission was considered a success, despite the difficulties it encountered. Unexpected performance from Orion’s heat shield During re-entry. Artemis 2 was originally scheduled to launch in September 2025, but the program was recently delayed Pushing Orion’s manned flight to April 2026. The mission aims to reach Artemis 3, the first human landing on the moon since Apollo. Artemis 3 has also been delayed to sometime in mid-2027.

NASA’s Artemis program has been a bit of a struggle, as the space agency races to reach the lunar surface before China, but issues with its SLS rocket, Orion’s heat shield, and a number of other issues have plagued the lunar program, causing several delays and overruns. In costs. Fortunately, Orion is now prepared to propel itself away from the rocket in case of an emergency.