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Fly me to the Moon! NASA to take first step back to the Moon in decades
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While most Americans busy themselves with Christmas shopping and finding great deals on gifts, NASA is quietly preparing to take the first intrepid step back to the Moon. On December 4, a new space capsule will be lofted on a flight high above Earth's atmosphere. Known as the Orion capsule, the craft will eventually carry Americans back to the Moon.
Highlights
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
12/1/2014 (1 decade ago)
Published in Technology
Keywords: NASA, Orion, Moon, rocket, test flight, launch, value
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL (Catholic Online) - In the morning hours of Dec. 4, assuming all goes well, many Central Floridians will look out their window to a familiar sight - a column of white smoke ascending into heaven. However, this time, something will be different.
Atop that rising column will be an unmanned space capsule, one that is intended to return Americans to space with a vengeance in the next decade. The flight will send the Orion space capsule, large enough to fly four astronauts, on its first test flight into space. The capsule will orbit the Earth, pass through the Van Allen radiation belts, and make a fiery plunge back through the atmosphere to test its heat shield, its most critical component. It will splash down in the ocean under a canopy of parachutes that is wider than a football field.
Let us pray for a bright future together!
The Orion Capsule is 16.5 feet in diameter, and is about 25 percent larger than the old Apollo capsules. While it appears to emulate Apollo on the outside, that is where the similarities end. Apollo was an amazing technical marvel, but Orion is updated with modern systems that are even more reliable and capable than those that flew over four decades ago.
This initial flight will test the capsule's abilities under genuine flight conditions, before people ride it into space. A second test flight is scheduled for 2018, assuming Thursday's flight goes well. After that, astronauts will begin riding the capsule into space around 2021, just six years from now.
Within that decade, NASA plans to return to the Moon. In fact, the first human test flight of the capsule may even be a trip around the moon. This would be the first time humans have returned to the Moon since 1972.
The United States is also in a race. China has announced plans to fly to the Moon and may have ambitions to send humans there soon. Other nations such as Japan and India have shown an interest in lunar exploration.
The Moon is believed to be rich with resources and could someday host a long-term laboratory as well as mining operations. As rare Earth metals and other rare components can be more easily found on the Moon than on Earth, future mining missions to the Moon could soon become cost effective.
Americans benefited tremendously from the Apollo mission and technologies developed for the trip to the Moon have come into common use. From pacemakers to LED lights, to Temper foam we sleep on, our world would not be what it is today without Apollo. Is another technological renaissance due with the Orion missions? Time will tell.
The mission is scheduled for 7:05 a.m. EST, but has a window that extends to 9:44 a.m. The mission may be delayed by weather, which is now forecast to bring some showers to the area along with gusty winds.
If scrubbed, NASA will continue trying to launch the rocket each day thereafter unless a fault is found that requires maintenance.
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