Launch of Deep-Space Capsule for Astronauts Is Delayed by Rocket Glitch

A series of delays thwarted repeated liftoff attempts on Thursday. A second attempt is set for Friday morning

December 4, 2014 | and |

A number of delays prevented the Orion capsule from launching as scheduled from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Dec. 4, 2014.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The launch debut of NASA's first deep-space capsule in more than 40 years will have to wait at least another day after a series of delays thwarted repeated liftoff attempts on Thursday (Dec. 4).

The , NASA's first space capsule since the Apollo era, was poised to launch from a pad here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to test its heat shield, parachutes and other vital spaceship functions. But the unmanned test flight was unable to blast off during a 2-hour, 39-minute window due to a series of issues and glitches.

First, a wayward boat strayed into the offshore danger zone during the last few minutes of an initial launch try at 7:04 a.m. EST (1204 GMT). []

Then, unacceptably high winds at the launch site tripped sensors that triggered automatic launch aborts two separate times, both within minutes of liftoff.

Finally, as the launch window neared its final hour, a fuel valve issue forced launch controllers to conduct extra tests on the Orion's massive Delta 4 Heavy rocket, prompting even more delays. In the end, engineers couldn't fix the valve issue — which involved several of the rocket's "fill and drain" valves not closing properly — in time for Orion to get off the ground on Thursday.

NASA's next chance to launch Orion will come on Friday (Dec. 5) at 7:05 a.m. EST (1205 GMT), with forecasts calling for a 60 percent chance of good weather for the launch try. You can live on Space.com via NASA TV.

Built for NASA by Lockheed Martin, the Orion spacecraft is a new deep-space vehicle designed to fly astronauts on missions to the moon, and beyond. NASA aims to capture a near-Earth asteroid and tow it near the moon so astronauts can study it up close by 2025. In the 2030s, NASA intends to send astronauts on to Mars. The Orion spacecraft is the linchpin vehicle for both projects.

But first, NASA wants to know that some basic technologies on Orion —primarily its huge heat shield and vital parachute landing system —will work when astronauts have to rely on them. That's where the unmanned Orion flight test this week (called ) comes in.

The test flight will launch an Orion capsule on a 4.5-hour mission designed to mimic the harsh re-entry conditions the vehicle would experience when returning to Earth from the moon or Mars. The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy will launch the Orion capsule out to an altitude of 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers), with the capsule then returning to Earth at a mind-blowing 20,000 mph (32,000 kph), forcing its heat shield to withstand blistering temperatures of nearly 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius).

After two orbits of Earth, Orion is scheduled to re-enter Earth's atmosphere, deploy its parachutes and splash down in the Pacific Ocean about 600 miles (966 km) southwest of San Diego, California. A U.S. Navy team working with NASA will recover the test Orion capsule and tow it back to shore.

If all goes well, the Orion test flight will set the stage for an even more ambitious mission in late 2017 or 2018, when the capsule will launch on the first flight of NASA's new mega-rocket, the (SLS). SLS and Orion will fly a crew together for the first time in 2021.

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