Space.com by Jeff Foust — June 30, 2019
The next major milestone in the development of the spacecraft designed to take humans back to the moon will be a three-minute test flight this week to ensure astronauts can escape in the event of an emergency.
NASA plans to conduct the Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station July 2 during a four-hour window that opens at 7 a.m. Eastern. A weather forecast issued June 30 by the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Space Wing calls for a 70 percent chance of acceptable weather, with cloud coverage the primary concern.
In the test, a refurbished solid rocket motor from a Peacekeeper missile, carrying an Orion spacecraft mockup, will lift off from Space Launch Complex 46. Fifty-five seconds after launch, at an altitude of nearly 9,500 meters and speed of Mach 1.3, controllers will trigger the capsule’s launch abort system (LAS), a tower mounted on top of the capsule, pulling it and the capsule away from the booster to simulate an abort during a Space Launch System flight.
Three sets of rocket motors will fire on the LAS during the test. The first will be the abort motor, producing 400,000 pounds-force of thrust to quickly pull the capsule away from the booster. An attitude control motor at the top of the tower then reorients the capsule. Finally, a jettison motor will separate the LAS from the capsule, which will fall into the ocean.
More:
https://spacenews.com/upcoming-test-to-demonstrate-orions-launch-abort-system-in-flight/
