Strong winds, rocket issue delay historic launch of Orion spacecraft

CAPE CANAVERAL (Florida) — The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) new Orion spacecraft will have to wait another day to fly. Wind gusts and a sticky rocket valve forced the Cape Canaveral launch team to call off yesterday’s attempt to send Orion into orbit on its first test flight. NASA said it will try again today.

The inaugural flight, while just four-and-a-half-hours, will send the unmanned capsule 5,800km into space. The ultimate goal, in the decades ahead, is to use Orion to carry people to Mars and back.

High winds twice halted yesterday morning’s countdown with less than four minutes remaining. Then a valve in the unmanned Delta IV rocket malfunctioned at the three-minute mark. Launch controllers scrambled to check all of the so-called “fill and drain” valves in the three first-stage booster engines. But time ran out.

This is the first attempt to send a spacecraft capable of carrying humans beyond hundreds of kilometres from Earth since the Apollo moon programme.

NASA had anticipated 26,000 guests for the historic send-off. The roads leading into the Kennedy Space Center were packed well before dawn — and the atmosphere was reminiscent of the days of the space shuttle programme. “Go Orion!!” urged a hotel billboard in nearby Cocoa Beach.

Yesterday was the 16th anniversary of the launch of the first United States piece of the International Space Station, by the shuttle Endeavour. “That was the beginning of the space station, and today is the dawn of Orion,” said launch commentator Mike Curie.

Orion is aiming for two orbits on its inaugural run. On the second lap around the home planet, the spacecraft should reach a peak altitude of 5,800km, high enough to ensure a re-entry speed of 32,200kmh and an environment of 2,200°C. Its splashdown will be in the Pacific Ocean off the Mexican Baja coast, where Navy ships are already waiting.

NASA’s Mission Control in Houston was all set to oversee the entire operation. The flight programme was loaded into Orion’s computers well in advance, allowing it to fly on autopilot. Flight controllers could intervene in the event of an emergency breakdown.

The spacecraft has 1,200 sensors to gauge everything from heat to vibration to radiation. At 3.35m tall with a 5m base, Orion is bigger than the Apollo-era capsules and more advanced.

NASA deliberately kept astronauts off this US$370 million (S$485 million) flight, wanting to test the riskiest parts of the spacecraft — the heat shield, parachutes and various jettisoning components — before committing to a crew. The earliest Orion might carry passengers is 2021, while asteroids are on the space agency’s radar in the 2020s and Mars, the grand prize, in the 2030s.

“It’s a thrilling prospect when you think about actually exploring the solar system,” space station commander Butch Wilmore said from orbit.

“Who knows where it will take us, who knows where it will go. We’ll find out as time goes forward, but this first step is a huge one.” AP