Watch NASA drop its Orion spacecraft into a million-gallon splashdown pool
Chris Davies - Apr 6, 2021, 3:36pm CDT
Before you can launch something into space, first you have to drop it, hence NASA ditching its Orion Spacecraft into its vast Hydro Impact Basin to see how the latest design holds up. It’s an early preview of what will eventually be the final major part of Orion’s journey back from the Moon, as it splashes down into the Pacific Ocean.
Before it hits the ocean, of course, it’ll be slowed on its descent by parachutes. Still, 14,000 pounds of space capsule still makes a splash, something the Hydro Impact Basin (HIB) at NASA’s Langley Research Center’s Landing and Impact Research Facility in Hampton, Virginia is well equipped to demonstrate.
Watch Live As NASA Drops 7-Ton Orion Spacecraft Into Huge Pool in Water Impact Test
On 4/6/21 at 9:07 AM EDT
NASA will be showing live footage of its Orion spacecraft water drop test on Tuesday afternoon.
At 1:45 p.m. EDT, the space agency will hold a 7-ton test version of the Orion capsule over a huge pool before releasing it to see how it copes with the impact.
The idea is to see how the spacecraft might behave when it splashes down in the ocean for real after future missions. Orion is scheduled to take astronauts to the Moon as soon as 2024.
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