It is ten years since NASA sent the Orion spacecraft into space on the Exploration Flight Test-1 mission.
Orion EFT-1 mission launching on Delta IV Heavy
Orion EFT-1 mission launching on Delta IV Heavy (pic: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
While the bad news bus was rolling around NASA last week, unloading a revised schedule for the first crewed mission for the spacecraft that includes a delay into 2026, the anniversary was noted by the space agency.
In 2014, the Space Shuttle program had only recently wound down with the last flight of the orbiter in 2011. NASA's great hope for a return to the Moon, the Constellation program, was axed in 2010, but the capsule that would have been launched atop the Ares I launch vehicle (often referred to as "the stick" since its first stage was a single solid rocket booster derived from the Space Shuttle) was retained.
While the rest of the Space Launch System (SLS) was beset by delays, a substantial amount of work had already been done on Orion. While the spacecraft's service module, a unit derived from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), wouldn't feature until the Artemis I mission in 2022, Lockheed Martin's Orion capsule was ready for a test flight in 2014.
There had been several test flights before 2014, most notably a full-scale simulator launched on top of the Ares I-X prototype in 2009. However, for 2014, the plan was to perform a two-orbit test in a mission lasting more than four hours. There would be no crew and only a dummy version of ESA's service module, but the avionics, parachutes, and heat shield would get a thorough workout during a flight plan that culminated in a high-energy reentry similar to what was expected on lunar missions.
Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) launched at 1205 UTC on December 5, 2014, atop a Delta IV Heavy booster after being scrubbed on the previous day. The mission lasted just under four and a half hours and was a great success. The capsule remains on display at Kennedy Space Center.
A year after EFT-1, SpaceX performed the first successful landing of a Falcon 9 booster, setting the company up for a near-perfect run of success, including recently passing the 400 launch milestone. With NASA funding, SpaceX was also delivering cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) even before EFT-1. By 2020, it was flying crew to the orbiting outpost.
Orion, in comparison, remained grounded until the Space Launch System (SLS) took its maiden flight in 2022, sending the uncrewed spacecraft into lunar orbit and back to Earth. The next flight, for the first time with crew, is scheduled for 2026.
While comparing Orion to SpaceX's spacecraft is not entirely fair – the two are designed for different things – it is also difficult not to look to NASA's history when considering the ten years that have elapsed since EFT-1. NASA was founded in 1958 and managed a crewed landing just over a decade later. The Apollo Command Module that carried astronauts to the Moon and back to Earth was developed from scratch in the same decade as the first Moon landing.
In the decade since EFT-1, NASA has flown the Orion capsule exactly once. And that was without a crew.
Then again, NASA's funding during the Apollo heyday somewhat differs from what the agency has to work with today.
While ten years since the first test flight is an anniversary worth celebrating, it is also worthy of commiseration. It will, after all, be well over ten years since EFT-1 before NASA finally loads a crew into an Orion capsule. ®