NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Abort Motor Arrives for NASA's Orion Launch Safety System

Engineers inspect an Orion Launch Abort System motor. Image Credit: NASA/ATK

One of the three motors used to test the safety system for the Orion crew exploration vehicle has arrived at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico after a 14-hour journey from Salt Lake City. The motor will soon be fully integrated with the other system motors in preparation for the Pad Abort 1, or PA-1, flight test this fall. The launch abort system is designed to protect the crew onboard Orion by pulling the craft to safety in the event of an emergency on the launch pad or during the initial phase of ascent.

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Artist’s concept of NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle in lunar orbit. Image Credit: NASA

America will send a new generation of explorers to the moon aboard NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle. Making its first flights to the International Space Station early in the next decade, Orion is part of the Constellation Program to send human explorers back to the moon, and then onward to Mars and other destinations in the solar system.