The
world’s largest heat shield, measuring 16.5 feet in diameter, has been
successfully attached to the Orion spacecraft.
.
The heat shield is made
from a single seamless piece of Avcoat ablator. It will be tested on
Orion’s first flight in December 2014 as it protects the spacecraft from
temperatures reaching 4000 degrees Fahrenheit.
.
The uncrewed flight, dubbed Exploration Flight Test-1(EFT-1), will
test the spacecraft for eventual missions that will send astronauts to
an asteroid and eventually Mars. EFT-1 will launch an uncrewed Orion
capsule 3,600 miles into space for a four-hour mission to test several
of its most critical systems.
.
After making two orbits, Orion will return
to Earth at almost 20,000 miles per hour, before its parachutes slow it
down for a landing in the Pacific Ocean.
No comments:
Post a Comment