Apr 16 2007
From The Space Library
NASA announced an agreement with the U.S. Air Force to support abort-flight-test requirements for the Orion Project. Under a contract with Orbital Sciences Corporation of Chandler, Arizona, the U.S. Air Force Space Development and Test Wing at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, had scheduled flight tests of abort-test boosters. The purpose of the tests, which would begin in 2009 at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico and would last through 2011, was to support certification of the Orion CEV’s launch-abort system. The system included a small rocket designed to ensure the safety of the crew in the event of a launch-vehicle malfunction while on the launchpad or during ascent to orbit. Of the six tests planned, two would simulate a situation involving an abort from the launchpad and would require no booster; the remainder would use abort-test boosters to simulate aborts at three stressing conditions along the Ares launch-vehicle trajectory.
NASA, “NASA Buys Abort Test Boosters for Orion Flight Tests,” news release 07-86, 16 April 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/apr/HQ_07086_Orion_ATB_purchase.html (accessed 16 February 2010).
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