Aerospace firm Lockheed Martin, NASA’s contractor, unveiled a new manned Orion space capsule that will let astronauts to fly to and from the orbiting observatory- the International Space Station.
Orion includes modules for crew, cargo, electrical power and propulsion. It is also equipped with a launch abort system to protect the capsule and astronauts in case of failure of booster rocket. The abort system has already been tested by NASA.
Lockheed Martin's Human Space Flight programs’ Vice President John Karas said Orion could start running real space missions by the year of 2016.
Speaking about Orion, Karas said, “The spacecraft is an incredibly robust, technically advanced vehicle capable of safely transporting humans to asteroids, Lagrange Points and other deep space destinations that will put us on an affordable and sustainable path to Mars.”
Originally, Orion was designed as a part of the Constellation program with an aim at returning humans to the Moon, but the program was cancelled by the Obama administration. The Obama administration wants to use commercial crew transport for sending humans to space and Moon. Thus, Orion will now serve as an escape vehicle for the ISS and for other deep space missions.
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