Watch NASA’s Artemis 1 Launch Abort System tear into space
Anger against the extinction of light in this new video.
that of NASA Orion spacecraft cockpit shines in pink from the glow of its Launch Abort System (LAS) turret, tearing away from the Space Launch System (SLS) missile and spacecraft stack. This all happened as planned during the epic launch of the artemis 1 mission to the Moon November 16.
The movie-like moment, which resembles a scene from “Interstellar” or “Star Wars,” shows the LAS flying away from the cockpit in plain sight of a mannequin astronaut that’s testing radiation and other space hazards before humans climb aboard.
Lockheed Martin, who built the Orion spacecraft, shared the view from the cockpit on Twitter (opens in new tab) on Friday (Dec. 1), anticipating what astronauts will see with their own eyes to begin with artemis 2‘s projected trip around the moon in 2024. Moon landing mission Artemis 3 will follow as early as 2025, with more Artemis program missions in progress.
In photos: Launch of Artemis 1: Great view of NASA’s lunar rocket debut
The SLS Launch Abort System generates enough thrust to lift 26 elephants off the ground, according to NASA statistics (opens in new tab). That’s more power than is available from five F-22 jets.
NASA’s version ofThe poweris needed to quickly and safely pull astronauts away from the SLS rocket in an emergency. However, if the launch carries the crew to space without incident, the LAS tower will tear into space to reduce the mass of the capsule before it heads to the moon.
Epic video of all of Artemis 1 has audiences riding the spacecraft around the Moon and back to Earth with stunning live footage of the lunar surface and our distant planet that left NASA engineers “dizzy” with joy.
Orion is expected to crash on December 11, after following in the footsteps of generations of missions with their own abort systems.
Related: The 25 scariest spaceflight moments show dangers in orbit and beyond
Most human-carrying space systems throughout manned history have been equipped with ejection seats or launch abort towers, with the exception of the last space shuttle missions which instead had mission abort options while the crew was in the vehicle remained.
Perhaps the most dramatic use of a real-life abortion using an escape tower was the Soviet Union’s Soyuz T-10-1 launch on September 26, 1983. Russian space journalist Anatoly Zak says the system saved the lives of the launch crew then rescued it she pulled away (opens in new tab) of an exploding rocket still on the launch pad.
The last manned abortion on October 11, 2018, Soyuz mission MS-10 to the International Space Station did not use the escape tower as it had already been jettisoned, but the crew used a alternate abort mode to get back on the ground quickly and safely. (You can listen to the breaking down as it happened in the video above.)
Private space providers have their own escape systems on their rockets, as was shown during a drama Blue origin unscrewed launch failed of the New Shepard system on September 12, 2022. The escape route system safely pulled the capsule away of the booster, which was presumably destroyed during launch. Blue Origin is investigating the cause and plans to send humans into space no earlier than 2023, after completing six crewed missions without incident.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why am I taller (opens in new tab)(ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a space medicine book. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
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