From NASA via DVICE.COM comes word that the Orion crew capsule is indeed scheduled for a 2014 flight! Now before you start dancin a jig, let's qualify this first mission:
- The plan is to send the capsule through two orbits, ending up farther from Earth than any craft intended for human transport has been since 1973. Then, Orion will return for a splashdown in the Pacific.
Now this does sound a bit anticlimactic, like the article stated, it is further than anyone has gone for a very very long time. Far enough to start thinking....are these guys crazy? None of the tech looks any more advanced than 60s era Apollo and the are flying it into deep-space and then come back at 20k mph to splash down in the Pacific ocean? Let me show you why that makes me nervous.....
Now granted, this was test one and it looked too high, too fast and the angle of attack much to high....still....ugly AND scarey! If you go a bit further, test 2's results are much easier to watch!
