NASA successfully tests crew rocket escape system for Orion/SLS

by David Todd | Jul 3, 2019 | NASA, Orion, Technology, test

While NASA left off the parachutes for schedule reasons (the parachute system has already been tested) the Orion crew module capsule (in unmanned condition) had its tractor rocket tower escape system fitted above it, successfully fired in a test on 2 July 2019 to prove that it could work in an emergency abort from a faulty SLS launch. The three-minute Ascent Abort-2 test had a test version of the Orion crew module being launched from Space Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida using a solid rocket stage taken from a modified Peacekeeper missile. This had been procured through the U.S. Air Force and built by Northrop Grumman.

On the way up to its tractor escape rocket test – the Orion Ascent Abort 2 test rocket launch. Courtesy: NASA

The Orion test spacecraft traveled to an altitude of about six miles, at which point it experienced high-stress aerodynamic conditions expected during ascent. The abort sequence triggered and, within milliseconds, the abort motor fired to pull the crew module away from the rocket. Its attitude control motor flipped the capsule end-over-end to properly orient it, and then the jettison motor fired, releasing the crew module for a safe splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean which it would have achieved had it been carrying parachutes.

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