Launch will occur from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 37 launch pad. Credit: ULAThe Orion spacecraft stands 73 feet tall. Credit: ULALaunch is set to occur at 7:05 a.m. EST on Dec. 4. Credit: ULA
The first flight test of Orion will be a two-orbit, four-hour shakedown cruise to check critical systems of the crew capsule. Credit: ULA
Completing a 2,700-mile journey across the United States, America’s inaugural Orion spaceship arrived back home at the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, just under two weeks after its trial by fire.
A camera mounted aboard the Orion capsule for the EFT-1 test flight records the space capsules plunge toward the Pacific Ocean and its splashdown beneath three parachutes.
NASA’s first space-worthy Orion capsule blasted off atop a Delta 4-Heavy booster rocket for a two-orbit, four-hour shakedown cruise in orbit. Liftoff occurred at 7:05 a.m. EST (1205 GMT), with splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 11:29 a.m. EST (1629 GMT).
