Test Run For Orion Flight To Mars Postponed

We use cookies to give you the best experience. If you do nothing we'll assume that it's ok.

By Thomas Moore, Science And Health Correspondent

The launch of a US spaceship designed to take astronauts to an asteroid and then Mars has been postponed because of high winds.

The unmanned version of NASA's Orion capsule is now due to blast off for its debut flight at 12.05pm UK time on Friday.

The launch team were forced to call off their attempt at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday because of wind gusts and a sticky rocket valve.

A Delta IV Heavy rocket will power the capsule to a height of 3,600 miles, 15 times higher than the space station, before turning round to re-enter the atmosphere at 20,000mph.

Mark Geyer, program manager of Orion, said: "Really, we're going to test the riskiest parts of the mission.

1/5

Gallery: New Spacecraft To Debut This Week

NASA prepares to test flight new spacecraft Orion. Pic: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Orion will eventually carry people beyond Earth's orbit

]]>

This illustration by NASA shows the launch

]]>

The flight will end with a splash in the Pacific. Here is a drill carried out this year

]]>

Rocket boosters for Orion's first flight, scheduled for Thursday at Cape Canaveral

]]>

"Ascent, entry, plus the navigation and guidance - all those things are going to be tested."

Orion has been rigged with 1,200 sensors that will monitor the craft on its four-and-a-half hour flight.

It will pass through the Earth's radiation belt, a test for shields that should protect future astronauts in deep space.

The capsule's performance will also be carefully assessed as it plunges through the atmosphere, heating up to 2,200C, before deploying 11 parachutes and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

"We want to discover things that are beyond our modelling capability and beyond our expertise so we learn and fix it," said Mr Geyer.

Astronauts have not ventured beyond Earth's orbit since the Apollo moon missions of the 1970s.

NASA aims to have finessed the capsule in time for human exploration of an asteroid in the 2020s. A mission to Mars is expected to follow in the 2030s.

Bob Cabana, director of Kennedy Space Centre, said: "To be able to even think about going to an asteroid and to be able to think about this kind of exploration, that's very exciting."

Recommended by Outbrain Recommended by Outbrain

Anter Jemput