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NASA is testing its Orion spacecraft ahead of its planned trip to the Moon. The space agency simulated the extreme conditions the capsule could experience during a launch abort scenario when it would need to push itself, and its crew, away from the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
NASA recently completed an 11-month crew module test campaign to ensure Orion is ready for the Artemis 2 mission, which will send a crew of four astronauts around the Moon and back. A team of engineers subjected the Orion Environmental Test Article (ETA) to a series of exhaustive tests at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, simulating emergency scenarios during launch. Orion is designed to separate from the SLS rocket and jump safely into the ocean during a launch abort scenario with astronauts on board.
“This event would be the maximum stress and the highest load that any of the systems would see,” said Robert Overy, the Orion ETA project manager at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. statement. “We are taking a proven vehicle from a successful flight and pushing it to its limits. The safety of the astronaut crew depends on this test campaign.
During the tests, NASA engineers simulated the noise levels of an abort scenario during launch, as well as the electromagnetic effects of lightning. The slow-motion video (above) shows Orion’s docking module and parachute covers, as well as five airbags atop the spacecraft inflating after splashdown, being launched. This process is necessary to deploy the spacecraft’s parachute system and deploy the airbags, which are designed to ensure a safe landing in the ocean for the crew.
It looks like the Orion module passed the test. “It’s been a successful trial campaign,” Overy said. “The data corresponded to the prediction models, and everything operated as expected after being subjected to nominal and aborted acoustic levels. We are still analyzing the data, but preliminary results show that the vehicle and the facility are operating as” and desired.”
NASA has been preparing for this test for over a decade. The space agency built the Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility, the world’s most powerful spacecraft acoustic test chamber, in 2011 for this specific test campaign. “These tests are absolutely critical because we have to complete all these tests to say that the spacecraft design is safe and we are ready to fly a crew for the first time on Artemis II,” Michael See, ETA vehicle director in the Orion program of NASA. , he said in a statement. “This is the first time we’ve been able to test a spacecraft on the ground in such an extreme, abort-level acoustic environment.”
In November 2022, Orion launched on a 1.4 million mile journey to the Moon and back. The Artemis 1 mission was an unmanned test flight of the capsule to prepare its successor, Artemis 2. The mission was considered a success, despite a unexpected performance from Orion’s heat shield during re-entry. Artemis 2 was originally scheduled for launch in September 2025, but a recent delay in the program pushed the Orion crew trip to April 2026. The mission is intended to lead to Artemis 3, the first human landing on the Moon since Apollo. Artemis 3 has also been delayed to mid-2027.
NASA’s Artemis program has been a bit of a struggle, with the space agency racing to reach the lunar surface ahead of China, but problems with its SLS rocket, Orion’s heat shield, and a number of other problems, have plagued the lunar program, causing many delays and excessive costs. Fortunately, Orion is now ready to move away from the rocket in case of an emergency.
