KSC-2013-3817

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At the Launch Abort System Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the launch abort system, or LAS, for the Orion Exploration Flight Test-1, is backed by flatbed truck into a low bay at the facility. The low bay has been prepared for additional LAS processing. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry crews to space beyond low Earth orbit. It will provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. The LAS is designed to safely pull the Orion crew module away from the launch vehicle in the event of an emergency on the launch pad or during the initial ascent of NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket. Orion’s first unpiloted test flight is scheduled to launch in 2014 atop a Delta IV rocket. A second uncrewed flight test is scheduled for 2017 on the SLS rocket. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/orion. Photo credit: NASA/Daniel Casper