For the safety of the astronauts, NASA blew up their ship

© NASA/Quentin Schwinn

NASA is wrapping up final preparations for the Artemis 2 mission. It will take four astronauts around the Moon for a few days' journey as close as possible to our satellite. This historic mission, the first of its kind since the early 1970s, requires months and months of preparation.

Among the hundreds of people who worked on this mission, a team of researchers took care of the safety of the Orion spacecraft. It is the one that will serve as a home for the four astronauts during the flight, they. so was tested from every angle for 11 months.

One of the last tests conducted by the team in charge of the ship's safety was to simulate an “emergency evacuation”. In the event of a problem during takeoff, the ship must be able to separate from the rest of the rocket using explosive charges. Then, it deploys its parachutes and comes to land on the ocean, floating thanks to huge balloons.

For Robert Overy, head of the Orion ETA project, this last test was the one with the “maximum stress”. He nevertheless assures that it was a great “success” for NASA and Orion seems to have met all the expectations of the American space agency.

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10 years of preparation

In addition to the 11 months of various tests undergone by the Orion spacecraft, NASA has been working on this particular emergency evacuation mission for years. In 2011, it built the Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility, an acoustic charm specifically designed for this mission.

For Michael See, director of vehicles within the Orion program, this investment is far from being in vain because it allows, and this for the first time in the history of space exploration, to test, from the ground, ships in extreme conditions.

Because the idea of ​​these different tests was not to reproduce “classic” flight conditions, or even expected ones, but rather to seek the limits of the ship. By knowing Orion's capabilities, and not just whether or not it can meet a particular mission, NASA will be able to revise its flight plan in an emergency without diving into the unknown. This is vital preparation for the four astronauts on board during the Artemis 2 mission.

A still unclear schedule

Even though all the tests have been completed on NASA's side, this does not mean that the spacecraft is ready for use. The Artemis mission schedule does not depend solely on Orion and is constantly evolving. Initially planned for the summer of 2025, this second mission should finally take place in the spring of 2066, at the earliest.

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