NASA’s new Orion space vehicle successfully completed its first dramatic test flight on Friday.
Several rocket engineers cried as the spacecraft finished its journey. Rob Navias, Mission Controller shouted with happiness “There is your new spacecraft, America”.
It was the second hot return after the Apollo’s moon flight. The space vehicle travels with an even faster than the Apollo’s moon program. It accomplished its first test flight in a short time period of four and half hours. This four hour long voyage of Orion definitely paved the way for numerous space exploration programs.
The government agency send Orion at this high altitude to prepare the crew module up for a 20,000-mph, 4,000 degree. It was surely the most difficult part of the test flight. The agency has also designed a special heat shield to protect the spacecraft from any damage
NASA intends to send astronauts to Mars and the Moon through the Orion spacecraft. After the test flight the government agency announced that the next Orion flight will launch after four years. However, the flight which takes astronauts out of the Earth is nearly seven years away. The budget issues are the main reason behind the long gap between the second flight and the crew flight.
Mike Sarafin, the main flight director stated that they will try hard to continue this space exploration journey. Although it was an unmanned mission but it felt like everyone was on board.