Maiden flight

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the great live video coverage of the maiden flight of NASA’s Orion spacecraft.

On December 5th 2014, NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle completed two orbits around the Earth, reached a peak altitude of 3,604 miles and re-entered the atmosphere at nearly 20.000 mph in the spacecraft’s uncrewed maiden flight. The peak altitude was also the highest point a human-rated spacecraft has ever reached since the final Apollo mission more than 40 years ago. The test flight lasted 4 hours and 23 minutes and was a critical mission in order to test and evaluate all the spacecraft’s systems. During the flight, the Orion spacecraft was exposed to high radiation without taking any damage as it crossed twice the Van Allen Radiation Belt.

Apart from the great accomplishment, the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT1) was also an impressive demonstration of today’s communication technologies. NASA TV provided a live coverage of the complete mission which even included live footage from the camaras placed inside the Orion capsule. It was just breathtaking sitting in front of my monitor and looking down on our Earth from one of Orion’s windows. Apart from the lack of zero gravity, it almost felt like being an astronaut on a space mission.

The coverage of the mission began with a live video stream directly from the launch pad. After the Delta-4 Heavy rocket vanished in the clouds, the coverage continued with images from cameras mounted on the rocket. During the orbital and re-entry phase of the mission, live data from the spacecraft or even pictures from the cameras inside the spacecraft were broadcasted. This coverage included spectacular views of our Earth, the parachutes being deployed during the final phase of the mission and even the splashdown. The final descent was also covered by a drone which was flying over landing area and provided great pictures of the spacecraft returning from space.

The live coverage of certain spaceflight events is not really a new thing. However, it felt totally different because of the impressive quality of the images. Moreover, it was really impressive to follow the whole mission in real time over the internet. Although I am basically living on the internet, live broadcasts from space are all the time a very spectacular event.