OrionSpacecraft
Latest
After Math: Number stations
It was a week of hodge-podgery for the tech industry. AT&T rolled out its almost-5G service, Amazon finally revealed its Prime membership figures and Facebook continued its multi-year streak as "Company Least Encumbered by Any Discernible Form of Human Ethics". Numbers, because you can't convince me Mark Zuckerberg doesn't cut his own hair.
Getting NASA astronauts safely out of Orion
As Project Mercury astronaut Gus Grissom learned, NASA spaceflights are not over after splashdown. During his 1961 mission, he barely escaped when the hatch blew too soon and took the "Liberty Bell" capsule to the bottom of the sea. Ever since, NASA has taken splashdown exit procedures very seriously, and it's no exception for the manned Orion capsule that's intended to go to Mars on the tip of the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
NASA's newest rocket booster is ready for deep space
NASA fired up a massive booster in Utah this morning. The powerful machine was put through its second and last qualification test in the desert before it's ready to facilitate the flight of the world's most powerful rocket to date.
NASA's first SLS launch will send cubesats into deep space
NASA announced on Tuesday that the first mission for its new Space Launch System in 2018, dubbed Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), will send more than a dozen mini-satellites as well as an unmanned Orion spacecraft into deep space.
Animated video shows Orion spacecraft in orbit
NASA may have pushed back the Orion spacecraft's test flight to 2014, but you can get an early glimpse of the capsule in orbit thanks to this animated video from Full Werks studio. You'll see the capsule circle the planet before touching down in the Pacific -- all with a much better view than you can expect when that actual launch date rolls around. The animation features audio clips from the original Apollo and, as any NASA-related video worth its salt should, includes a vintage voiceover from space sage Carl Sagan.
