Numerous Delays Plague Test Program
Because of delays completing preliminary tests at the launch
site, NASA has rescheduled the test launch of the Max Launch Abort
System, or MLAS, to no earlier than June 25 at the agency's Wallops
Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. The launch window will
extend from approximately 5:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. EDT.
The unpiloted test is part of an effort to design a system for
safely propelling future spacecraft and crews away from hazards on
the launch pad or during the climb to orbit. This system was
developed as an alternative concept to the launch abort system
chosen for NASA's Orion crew capsule.
MLAS was named after Maxime (Max) Faget, a Mercury-era pioneer.
Faget was the designer of the Project Mercury Capsule and holder of
the patent for the “Aerial Capsule Emergency Separation
Device,” which is commonly known as the escape tower.
While the Orion launch abort system has a single solid launch
abort motor in a tower positioned above the Orion Crew Module, the
MLAS concept for an operational vehicle would have four or more
solid rocket motors attached inside a bullet-shaped composite
fairing. Both are designed to propel the crew module and associated
fairing from the Ares I Rocket in event of a launch emergency.
The MLAS demonstration vehicle consists of a full-scaled
composite fairing, a full-scaled crew module simulator and four
solid rocket abort motors mounted in the boost skirt with motor
mass simulators in the forward fairing. The pad abort test
doesn’t actually begin until the seven second mark at burnout
of the solid motors. Test points of interest are demonstration of
unpowered flight along a stable trajectory, MLAS vehicle
reorientation and stabilization, followed by crew module simulator
separation from the MLAS fairing, stabilization and parachute
recovery of the crew module simulator.
Because the MLAS flight test vehicle was not optimized for
weight and parachute performance, there may be recontact between
the elements of the test vehicle after the parachutes are fully
deployed and after all the required data is collected. If recontact
does occur it will not affect the MLAS test objectives, nor will it
apply to Orion -- as the MLAS design and hardware are not
representative of the current Orion design.
The MLAS flight test vehicle weighs over 45,000 lbs. The
33-foot-high MLAS vehicle will be launched to an altitude of
approximately one mile to simulate an emergency on the launch pad.
A full-scale mockup of the crew capsule will separate from the
launch vehicle and parachute into the Atlantic Ocean.