Orion to fly in 2014 says NASA

摘要

NASA expects to conduct the first flight of the Orion Multi-Purpose crew Vehicle in early 2014 on a high-apogee flight designated Exploration Flight Test-1. Launched by a Delta 4-Heavy. the unmanned flight will pave the way for piloted tests starting as early as 2021 should flight evaluation of the new SLS-1 go as planned. The first unmanned SLS flight could take place as early as late 2017, a circumlunar mission repeated with a crew in 2021. Meanwhile, EFT-1 will be designed to fly a mission similar to that flown by the AS-501/ Apollo 4 mission in November 1967, a high-apogee ballistic flight putting the spacecraft on a re-entry trajectory with an interface velocity in excess of 20,000mph to verify the structural and thermal design capability.