Orion EFT-1

Launch, orbit & landing data: Designation  40329 / 14077A Launch date - time  05 Dec 2014 - 12:05 UT Launch site  CC, SLC-37B Launch vehicle  Delta-4H Payload  Orion CM & SM Simulator Mass (kg)   Mission  Spaceship test Earth orbit on :    - Perigee / Apogee  185 x 888 km    - Inclination  28.8°    - Period   min Landing date - time  05 Dec 2014 - 16:29 UT Landing location  Pacific Ocean, 450km West of Baja, California Prime recovery ship   Flight Duration  4 h 24 min Nbr orbits  2

Description:

• NASA's Orion EFT-1 is a orbital mission to test the reentry of a prototype of the manned Orion space capsule.
  Project Constellation's Orion (formerly CEV - Crewed Exploration Vehicle) is a manned Spacecraft for beyond-earth-orbit missions to the moon, to asteroids and eventually to Mars.
  Orion is a capsule design, which inherits its shape from the Apollo capsule, but is otherwise a completely new construction.
• In 2011 an unmanned test flight of a reduced Orion capsule without solar arrays and service module launched by a Delta-4H rocket in the latter part of 2013 or early 2014 was approved. The capsule and the dummy service module remain connected with the upper stage until the capsule is separated for reentry.

Mission details:

• Launch was scheduled for September 2014, but has been delayed to 5 December 2014.
• ORION EFT-1 was the first test flight of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. The craft, without a crew, was launched on December 5, 2014, at 12:05 UTC (7:05 am EST), by a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Space Launch Complex 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. EFT-1 used an Orion Crew Module (probably around 9400 kg) with a LAS escape tower atop a dummy Service Module with jettisonable side panels, which in turn is fixed to the OSA (Orion-to-Stage-Adapter). This vehicle was mounted on the second stage of a Delta IV Heavy vehicle, Delta 369.
• The mission was a four-hour, two-orbit test of the Orion crew module featuring a high apogee on the second orbit and concluding with a high-energy reentry at around 20,000 miles per hour (32,000 km/h; 8,900 m/s). This mission design corresponds to the Apollo 4 mission of 1967, which validated the Apollo flight control system and heat shield at re-entry conditions planned for the return from lunar missions.
• Delta 369's second stage was inserted into a 185 x 888 km x 28.8 deg orbit at 1222 UTC, 17 minutes after launch from Cape Canaveral. The stage made a second burn at 1400 UTC, entering a -37 x 5807 km orbit; apogee was at 1510 UTC. At 1528 UTC the Orion CM separated from the stage. At 1550 UTC Delta 369 made a third burn of unknown delta-V, accelerating its reentry which occurred at 1616 UTC.
  The Orion CM made a small RCS adjust burn at 1602 UTC and entered the atmosphere at 8.9 km/s at 1618 UTC, landing at 1629 UTC off Baja California at 23.60N 116.46W. It was recovered by USS Anchorage.

Orion's Service Module prior to encapsulation, December 2013

Completed EFT-1 Orion, September 2014

OEFT-1 Orion in fairing and with LES, October 2014

EFT-1 Orion on its Delta IV Heavy4

Delta-4H start

Mission diagram

External links:

• Wikipedia: EFT-1 Information