“Liftoff at dawn. The dawn of Orion and a new era of space exploration”
So said NASA media commentator Mike Curie at 11:35PM AEST Friday night as the Delta 4 heavy, on only its eighth mission lifted into the Florida sky carrying the Orion spacecraft on a flight that opened a new age of space exploration for the United States. Three and a half years after the last shuttle fight and 42 years after Apollo 17, a spacecraft designed to carry man once again left Low Earth Orbit.
My immediate reaction to Orion’s mission was I suspect similar to millions of others around the world who were watching the flight in person, on social media or via NASA TV. Despite my best efforts to I became so absorbed by the pictures from the spacecraft and the unmanned airborne Ikhana drone of the final stages of descent and splash that my live blog lay forgotten after entry interface.
Now we wait, with great anticipation for the next Orion flight.
Currently under construction at Lockheed, this Orion spacecraft, coupled with the ESA developed service module will fly from Kennedy’s Pad 39B on an unmanned circumlunar trajectory. Launch of the Space Launch System heavy lift vehicle, from Kennedy Space Center’s pad 39B is currently scheduled for 2017.
Only then, in 2020, will astronauts strap into Orion for the first time… nine years after the final shuttle flight.
What effect will Friday’s success have in the corridors of both NASA Headquarters and the Congress? One hopes that a combination of the apparent faultlessness of this first flight, coupled with the public enthusiasm generated world wide will inspire a rethink of the Orion development schedule, and that through increased support and funding for NASA and Orion by the Senate and Congress we will see a substantial revision of both the budget and the flight schedule, with the first manned flight occurring sooner than the predicted date of 2020.
NASA therefore faces the formidable task of maintaining public interest and support for Orion and its mission of manned exploration beyond Low Earth Orbit in the intervening period until the next flight.
Maintaining interest and support for Orion and other programs whether they be manned or unmanned is a task that belongs not just to NASA, but to every person across the world who believes in the peaceful exploration and development of space. It is therefore, the mission of everyone who genuinely believes in and supports a bold program space development and exploration to take a level of ownership and openly support the space program trough representation to those in a position to directly influence NASA’s budget, either at a national government or industry level.
Exploration Flight Test One was indeed a new dawn. Now we eagerly wait for the sun to rise further on a new and robust era of manned missions, to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
Let us all play our part in ensuring that the sun never sets on this new age of exploration.