Alliant Delivers Motor for First Orion Flight Test

摘要

Alliant Techsystems delivered the attitude control motor for the Launch Abort System of NASA's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Feb. 10 in preparation for the crew capsule's first flight test in April, according to a Feb. 18 company news release.rnDubbed Pad Abort 1, the test constitutes the first flight demo for Orion, part of NASA's Constellation program designed to replace the aging space shuttle fleet with new rockets and spacecraft optimized for the Moon. In his 2011 budget request, U.S. President Barack Obama proposed scrapping Constellation in favor of developing a commercial crew transportation system for low Earth orbit.