NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The Orion PA-1 flight test crew module is unloaded from a Mississippi Air Guard C-17 at NASA Dryden after a ferry flight from Holloman Air Force Base near the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. (NASA Photo / Tony Landis) The boilerplate crew module that was the focus of the recent Orion Launch Abort System Pad Abort-1 flight test at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico May 6 has been returned to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. The crew module and its separation ring were airlifted back to NASA Dryden at Edwards Air Force Base June 15 from Holloman Air Force Base aboard a Mississippi Air National Guard C-17.

Although the crew module was not originally planned to be reused due to the high-risk nature of the Pad Abort-1 test flight, the module and its systems survived the test flight with only very minor damage, according to Orion Abort Flight Test project manager Brent Cobleigh.

"The success of the PA-1 launch has opened an opportunity to re-fly the PA-1 crew module on another launch abort test flight in 2012, which will save time in the schedule and significantly lower costs," Cobleigh said. "The NASA team is putting together plans for this flight, which would test the launch abort system at a point in the ascent trajectory, near the speed of sound, where structural loads are very high."

Cobleigh said Dryden engineers and technicians will spend several months inspecting and re-qualifying all of the PA-1 crew module systems including the flight control computers, navigation systems, instrumentation, mechanisms, and parachute systems.

Pad Abort-1 flight test team technicians Kevin Mount and Jeff Doughty prepare to roll the platform carrying the Orion flight test crew module from the cavernous interior of a C-17 cargo plane following its return to NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. (NASA Photo / Tony Landis) The Launch Abort System developed for Orion is being designed to offer a safe, reliable and robust method of removing an astronaut crew from danger should an emergency occur on the launch pad or during a future spacecraft's ascent to space.

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