Commercial Licenses, Waivers Needed for Orion Test Flight in December

摘要

The upcoming launch of NASA's first Orion spacecraft features an unusually complex regulatory environment, including the use of commercial launch and re-entry licenses and risk levels several times higher than normally allowed. A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket is scheduled to launch the Orion spacecraft Dec. 4 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission called Exploration Flight Test (EFT)-1. Orion will make two orbits of Earth before performing a high-speed re-entry over the Pacific Ocean, splashing down off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.