Technical Hitches Delay Orion Capsule's First Launch

According to NBC news, "A series of delays held up the maiden launch of NASA's Orion capsule on Thursday, adding some extra suspense to the first test of a spacecraft that's designed to take humans farther than they've ever gone — including to Mars." The much-anticipated launch, which had been scheduled for launch 7:05 a.m. Florida time, is to boost into orbit — empty — an instance of the Orion crew capsule intended to be part of a manned mission to Mars. As of shortly after 9 a.m. eastern time, troubleshooting has been in progress on the Alliance Delta 4 launch vehicle's hydrogen fill and drain valves in attempt to make the launch within today's launch window, which extends to 9:44 a.m. Besides the technical problem with those valves, the launch was delayed by wind, as well as by a boat that strayed into a restricted area. (Shades of the stray-boat delay in October for Orbital Science's ISS delivery launch.) Friday and Saturday have been designated as backup dates. Update: 12/04 15:03 GMT by T : The launch has been scrubbed.

Comments

Stray boats and those on them

[TWX]

Do they detain the crew and any passengers on stray boats that are caught within the restricted area?

There was a plot point in a TV movie called Earth II where someone attempted to sabotage a space launch with a rifle at the beginning. I assume that if an important tank or engine component is punctured by rifle fire at the right time it would destroy the vehicle.

Re:Stray boats and those on them

[CrimsonAvenger]

They should warn them with SAMs.

Yeah, using Surface to AIR Missiles on boats actually works really well. Because, y'know, the difference between a boat and a plane is pretty much nonexistant....

Recycle?

[A10Mechanic]

Have they tried turning it off and on again? Oh, wait. They're actually doing that...

scrubbed.

[A10Mechanic]

Never mind. see you tomorrow

Rocket science is called so for a reason

[Anonymous Coward]

Stray boat and crazy people in them
Auto-off wind triggers
Manual override to those wind triggers
Fuel valve funny business - power cycling, over pressurizing, and what not.

All in the course of a couple of hours. Yep. Space is hard, folks!

Re:Rocket science is called so for a reason

[ColdWetDog]

Why would you NOT scrub a any space flight for a potential problem? You've got billions on the line. You can launch again in a day or so.

You in a hurry to go somewhere?

Re:Rocket science is called so for a reason

[webanish]

Fully agree. In the many years and billions spent to reach this day, a 24 hr delay (or even a 48hr or more) is a fraction of a peanut. But the fact that they were willing to manually override the auto wind triggers suggests that they either felt pressured with the closing of the launch window, or didn't trust enough in the reliability of those automated systems. If it's the former, then it's a scary prospect. The purpose of this mission I guess is to test the capsule and the upper launch stages. The DIVH is going to be replaced by a different system in the future (SLS) anyway, so having a failure in this part of the mission would be characterized so. Having in a failure while in orbit or on the way back would be 'extremely useful test data' and NOT a failure.

Re:rounding error

[Martin Blank]

While I'm not terribly enthusiastic about the Orion project, I do give them some credit that you clearly don't. A moon mission is to be possible with a single launch, similar to the Apollo missions. (I think a near-Earth asteroid will also be possible in one launch.) I believe a Mars mission is expected to be 2-3 launches, with the last one the manned launch, followed by docking in orbit and then leaving for Mars.

The setup flying from the Delta IV Heavy is only part of the stack. When the SLS launches, it will have a payload capacity of 130 tons, compared to the Delta IV Heavy's 23 tons. (The Saturn V could lift 118 tons.) That's a lot more hardware and fuel that can be lofted.