John Grunsfeld speaks about Orion’s science goals

Joining the live video podcast on Friday, April 5, are Emilee Speck, space journalist with FOX Weather, and Stephen Clark, space reporter with Ars Technica. The show begins at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 UTC) on the Spaceflight Now YouTube channel.

Boosted to an altitude of 3,604 miles by a Delta 4 rocket, NASA’s Orion deep space exploration vehicle fell back to Earth Friday in the program’s maiden voyage, slamming into the atmosphere at nearly 20,000 mph, enduring a hellish 4,000-degree re-entry and settling to a Pacific Ocean splashdown to wrap up a critical unmanned test flight.

Orbital ATK has cinched $188 million in contracts to complete development of the Orion crew capsule’s needle-shaped launch abort system, resuming work stalled in the wake up a major shakeup of NASA’s human spaceflight program by the Obama administration in 2010.