“One giant leap for mankind” doesn’t really come to mind after watching the Orion capsule launch. The Orion capsule is the leftover from the mission to the moon that Obama cancelled. Recently they tried out the escape mechanism from the Orion capsule which was to protect the astronauts just in case of fire or other mishap.
Yes, it’s a bit odd testing an escape mechanism for something that has been scrapped but they are determined to find a use for the Orion capsule such as a quick escape from the International space Station or similar.
orion
NASA doesn’t really want to rely on the Russians if something nasty happens so in that respect maybe it’s not such a bad idea at all. Having the space station up there without any way of getting rescued is a little bit like having your car stolen and having to rely on your neighbour to get around. If that neighbour also had a car that was a little unreliable and a bit bashed up it would be even worse.
Now I’m not saying that the Russians have a bad rocket there but as time goes on and money becomes scarcer I expect things may get a little dodgy on their funding front. On the other hand though if NASA starts to hire their rocket then there will be quite an injection of cash and things may survive quite nicely.
It is quite a nifty system and seems to work very well but I am not sure about the landing. I can see some of the astronauts having quite sore bums but I don’t think they will be too worried after escaping death!
The actual launch ejector test.
Animation of the launch ejector sequence.
Great video!