Pad Abort #1 PA-1 Test Launch of NASA Orion Launch Abort System LAS at White Sands

NASA launches the Pad Abort #1 test flight of the Launch Abort System for the Orion manned space capsule. The test simulated an abort with the rocket sitting on the launch pad before blastoff. The escape rocket propelled the capsule nearly a mile into the air, turned it so that its heat shield faced forward and then jettisoned itself. The Orion mockup deployed its parachutes and descended to a safe landing. The test was part of the soon to be cancelled Constellation program to return astronauts to the Moon.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Orion
• LAS
• PA-1
• PA #1
• pad
• abort
• test
• launch
• rocket
• escape
• system
• Constellation
• capsule
• NASA
• White Sands
• flight

[spacearium]

The unmanned abort was in Nov. 1960 with the MR-1 vehicle, a test launch before Shepard's flight. The escape rocket failed though. It fired and took off but left the capsule attached to the Redstone instead of pulling it free of the rocket after the Redstone's engine cutoff right after ignition. Pretty funny in hindsight.

[spacearium]

Of course, if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me haha

[spacearium]

The only type of spacecraft escape system to ever be used successfully is the escape rocket. A Russian Soyuz caught fire on the launch pad in 1983 and seconds before it blew up, the escape rocket fired and carried the cosmonauts to safety - a little bruised but safe and alive.

[MikeSkanz]

why a tilt limit when youre filming a rocket ???

[ti994apc]

@Tyrannobeast I don't know about myths, but I know there were some hard lessons learned with Titan IV (luckily the flaming chunks debris pelted the ocean) and Titan II explosion when its solid rocket debris took out a large area around the cape, a grocery store parking lot and several cars. The Titan IV solid rocket explosion is what prompted the Air force to say tying to escape from a solid rocket explosion is "not survivable". SRB's are also a reason VonBrown left NASA.

[Tyrannobeast]

@ti994apc I don't know where this myth of solids came from- in a controlled destruction of an errant launch vehicle the propellant would be depressurized. If you use APCP regularly, you'll learn through trial and error that Ammonium Perchlorate will very quickly flare up and then go out in a depressurization of the combustion chamber. There would be no great flaming chunks of propellant in an Ares 1 explosion.

[ti994apc]

The Dragon capsule is the by fare the best design for an escape system and those guys at SpaceX are light years ahead of their time in forward thinking. Their abort system can be used at any time. No separate abort system needed because its integrated into the capsule. Thus, you are reducing risk because the separation of the abort rocket booster is added danger.

[ti994apc]

One mile is simply not fare enough away if Orion is still going to be mated on a solid rocket fuel rocket like Ares. Flaming chunks of solid rocket debris would eat up the parachute. Liquid fueled rockets only require a few hundred yards clearance. So, to have an escape system powerful enough to go 1+ miles away, you need a heavy lift rocket for added weight (added cost and danger) and I am not sure a human can survive the acceleration forces of 0-500 in less than one second.

[ti994apc]

@Spartan043 I actually liked the Orion Alternate Launch Abort System they tested on 08 July 2009. The best escape system I believe is being developed for the Dragon Capsule. They are using the fuel already in the Capsule used for maneuvering, etc as the escape system. Thus, it eliminates the need to to jettison the escape system once in space which adds safety over Orion. In addition, it saves on weight which lowers the cost.

[Spartan043]

@ti994apc 16 g acceleration forces are survivable, provided that the crew is properly restrained. John Stapp survived a sustained acceleration of 46.2 g on a rocket sled, and this is nothing by comparison.

[ti994apc]

If someone were actually in this capsule the G-forces would more than likely have killed them. The escape system had to be this powerful its one of the mistakes of trying to abort and get far enough away from a solid rocket fuel explosion. Soyuz, and other liquid fueled rockets do not require an escape system near this powerful.

[don312000]

@spacearium There was also an inflight abort on one of the Mercury-Atlas tests not long after that one. If I remember, the spacecraft adaptor caved in, causing the rocket to explode. The escape system worked perfectly, and the spacecraft itself was re-flown on a later test flight.

[amourdutigre]

@spacearium

You are not wrong about that, it happened. What you might not be aware of is that the main flight clock continued running after main engine cut-off, (which was due to fa glitch caused by a faulty grounding of the rocket systems to the earth based systems). The entire flight sequence happened as commanded by the master flight clock, including the seperation and firing of the escape tower, which took off. Shepard commented that the only thing launched today was the escape tower.