Meet the most ambitious spaceship NASA has ever built
In the August issue of Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine, Tom Vanderbilt tests out NASA's new Orion spaceship, which will go deeper into space than any spaceship has before.
Vanderbilt toured a "low-fidelity mockup" of Orion at Lockheed Martin's Exploration Development Laboratory in Houston, and he describes the spaceship as resembling a Star Wars Stormtrooper's helmet.
Despite massive NASA budget cuts recently, NASA gave the lab $6.1 billion in 2006 for Orion's construction. When the program was canceled, Lockheed Martin created a contract, which has been extended to 2020, to build capsules for three missions. Orion, Vanderbilt writes, is "NASA's most ambitious crewed vehicle ever" and will "carry the human space program for the next 30 years." NASA hopes Orion will be able to complete everything from lunar exploration to Mars missions.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Orion will eventually reach speeds of 20,000 mph, Vanderbilt reports, and will be able to leave low Earth orbit, where the International Space Station is located. According to NASA's website, Orion's first test flight will occur by the end of the year, with Orion atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket. Orion's first exploration mission, which will be the first to combine Orion with NASA's new Space Launch System, is scheduled for 2017.
Check out the Orion capsule in the image below. --Meghan DeMaria
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.
-
The art world and motherhood: the end of a final taboo?
Talking Point Hettie Judah's new touring exhibition offers a 'riveting riposte' to old cliches
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
'Musk's reliance on China draws rising scrutiny'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Biba: the story of a 'legendary emporium'
The Week Recommends Brand's 60th anniversary is being marked with retrospective celebrating the 'iconic shop's cultural importance'
By Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK Published
-
An amphibian that produces milk?
speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Jupiter's Europa has less oxygen than hoped
speed read Scientists say this makes it less likely that Jupiter's moon harbors life
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Why February 29 is a leap day
Speed Read It all started with Julius Caesar
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US spacecraft nearing first private lunar landing
Speed Read If touchdown is successful, it will be the first U.S. mission to the moon since 1972
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Scientists create 'meaty' rice for eco-friendly protein
Speed Read Korean scientists have invented a new hybrid food, consisting of beef muscle and fat cells grown inside grains of rice
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New images reveal Neptune and Uranus in different colours than originally thought
Speed Read Voyager 2 images from the 1980s led to 'modern misconception'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Lift-off in Shetland Islands for UK's first vertical spaceport
Speed reads SaxaVord Spaceport aims to begin rocket launches next summer
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Scotland bids farewell to giant pandas
Speed Read Animals soon to begin journey back to China as loan agreement comes to an end
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published