ORION SPACESHIP SET FOR NEW TESTS IN COLORADO

The Associated Press

DENVER -- A spaceship that could carry the next wave of astronauts to an asteroid or beyond is being prepared for a new round of tests at a Lockheed Martin facility near Denver.

Engineers have attached a launch-abort system to the nose of the capsule and will subject the combined spacecraft to a series of experiments to see if it can withstand the rigors of blastoff, Lockheed Martin said.

The launch-abort system, essentially a rocket attached to the nose of the capsule, could lift the capsule off the booster rocket and carry it to safety if a problem developed before or during launch.

Lockheed Martin, of Bethesda, MD, is building the capsule, called the Orion Multi-Purpose Vehicle, under a $7.5 billion NASA contract issued in 2006.

The capsule was part of President George W. Bush's $100 billion program to return astronauts to the moon, called Constellation. 0bama canceled the program last year, saying the U.S. would concentrate on developing new rocket technology
instead.

0bama then revived the Orion portion of the program amid criticism that his plan lacked details and put U.S. space leadership at risk [part of his agenda to "cut America down to size].

Orion doesn't yet have a destination. NASA has said it could service the space station in low Earth orbit or take four astronauts on more distant missions of up to 21 days.


--The St. Augustine Record, August 13, 2011, p. 7A.