Orion: first flight time line

Update: Friday, December 5th. The Orion EFT-1 mission was a complete success, and I have an update available for those interested.

Update: Thursday, December 4th, 2014: due to a series of issues involving a boat straying too close to the launch pad, wind speeds around the pad exceeding safe limits, a fuel valve problem on two of the booster engines and – finally – concerns over the battery lief on Orion’s camera systems expiring due to lack of charge (with the fuel valve issues also unresolved) a decision was made to scrub the launch. A re-try will be made on Friday, December 5th, all major times given in the time line here remain the same, although NASA TV coverage will not commence until 11:00 UTC / 06:00 EST.

At approximately 12:05 PM UTC, on Thursday, December 4th, a Delta IV Heavy booster should lift-off from Launch Complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (immediately to the south of NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, and the home of the vat majority of America’s unmanned rocket launches).

Sitting at the top of the rocket, covered by the protective shroud of its Launch Abort System, will be America’s newest space vehicle, one that will – if all goes well, and political willingness is maintained – carry a crew to an asteroid in 2021, before taking humans back to the Moon, and then, perhaps around 2032, onwards to Mars and back.

The Orion Multi-purpose Crewed Vehicle (MPCV) is, as I’ve mentioned before in these pages, the first crew-capable space vehicle NASA has commissioned and will operate since the the space shuttle – a design itself rooted in the !970s. Yet in some respects, Orion evokes an even earlier era than that – the heady days of Apollo. Not only will it hopefully participate in lunar missions in the future, it actually resembles the Apollo Command Module, being a capsule vehicle, albeit one larger than Apollo (it can carry up to six crew, although four will likely be the usual crew number) and it is truly state-of-the-art in terms of design and capabilities.

This first launch will see Orion operated in an uncrewed proving flight, and will mark the start of a 4.5 hour mission that will see the capsule, complete with a “dummy” service module (again, like Apollo, Orion uses a Service module unit to supply life support, power and propulsion), travel further from the Earth than any vehicle designed to carry a crew has gone since the last of the Apollo Moon missions in 1972.

In doing so, the vehicle will be tested through the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding the Earth, and the capsule will be directed to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at around 80% of the velocity it would achieve on a return from a cislunar mission (that is, roughly 4,000 kph (2,500 mph) faster than the space shuttle ever returned to Earth).

For those interested in the mission, here’s a brief time line of events:

• 03:50 UTC, December 4th / 10:50 EST, December 3rd: The mobile launch gantry starts to withdraw from the launch vehicle
• 07:35 UTC / 02:35 EST, December 4th: Fuelling the Delta IV Heavy commences
• 08:35 UTC / 03:35 ET: NASA flight control team take over from United Launch Alliance in managing launch preparations
• 09:30 UTC / 04:30 EST: NASA TV coverage of the launch commences
• 11:46 UTC / 06:46 EST: Terminal countdown hold for final pre-launch checks
• 11:57 UTC / 06:57 EST: Go / No Go launch poll; Orion switches to internal power
• 12::01 UTC / 07:01 EST:  Terminal countdown begins
• 12:05 UTC: / 07:05 EST: Lift-off!
• 12:05  through 12:22:39 UTC / 07:05 through 07:22:39 EST:  vehicle climbs to initial orbit of 185 x 888 kilometres (115 x 552 miles), during which boosters and first stage are jettisoned, as are the Service Module fairings and Launch Abort System. Orion and Service Module still attached to Delta upper stage
• 14:00:26 UTC / 09:00:26 EST: Delta upper stage engine re-fires for 4:45 minutes, pushing the vehicle to its extended elliptical orbit that will carry it 5,800 km (3,600 miles) from Earth
• 14:10-14:25 UTC / 09:10-0925 EST: Orion passes through Van Allen radiation belts; cameras turned off during this period
• 15:10 UTC / 10:00 EST: Orion reaches furthest distance from Earth
• 15:28:41 UTC / 10:28:41 EST: Orion capsule detaches from “dummy” service module / Delta upper stage
• 15:35-16:10 UTC / 10:35-11:10 EST: Orions passes back through Van Allen radiation belts, reaction control motors used to initiate return to Earth
• 16:18:35 UTC / 11:18:35 EST: re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere commences at 36,000 kph (20,000 mph)
• 16:18:41-16:21:11 UTC / 11:18:41-11:21:11 EST: radio blackout & hottest period of re-entry with heat shield temperatures reaching 2,200C (4,000F), slowing the vehicle to around 480 kph (300 mph)
• 16:24:29 UTC / 11:24:39 EST: parachute bay cover jettisoned (and also recovered after parachuting to its own splashdown)
• 16:24:31 UTC / 11:24:31 EST: drogue parachute deployed, slowing vehicle from 480 kph (300 mph) to 160 kph (100 mph)
• 16:25:40 UTC / 11:25:40 EST: main parachute deployed, slowing the vehicle from 160 kph (100 mph) to less than 30 kph (20 mph)
• 16:28:29 UTC / 11:28:29 EST: Spashdown, to be followed by recovery by the USS Anchorage.