Test Flight For NASA's Orion Capsule Slated for December 4

Space.com (which will also carry live web-cam coverage) reports that the Orion capsule is scheduled for a test flight, sans passengers, on Thursday, December 4th. For this test flight, Orion will make two orbits of Earth, with the second lap taking the capsule 15 times farther from the planet than the International Space Station. Officials have attached more than 1,000 sensors to the spacecraft to monitor its systems during flight. Orion will also beam down images from its cameras as it is flying through space. NASA will use the information gathered during the test flight to make improvements to the spacecraft before humans set foot onboard. The Houston Chronicle has an article with some excellent diagrams of the planned flight, the Orion capsule itself, as well as some of the technological and political history behind the project.

Comments

Finally!

[Holistic Missile]

We should have been at this point about 10-15 years ago, when the shuttles were already past their expected usable life, but still in service. Now, the question is, is there really any practical reason for manned deep-space flights at this point? That will be the hard sell. A way to get to the ISS without thumbing a ride will certainly be a plus!