NASA Tests Alternate Launch Abort System For Astronaut Escape

July 08, 2009

Grey Hautaluoma/Ashley Edwards
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668/1756
,

Keith Henry
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
757-864-6120


Rebecca Powell
Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va.
757-824-1139

RELEASE: 09-156

NASA TESTS ALTERNATE LAUNCH ABORT SYSTEM FOR ASTRONAUT ESCAPE

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. -- NASA has successfully demonstrated an
alternate
system for future astronauts to escape their launch vehicle. A
simulated launch of the Max Launch Abort System, or MLAS, took place
Wednesday morning at 6:26 a.m. at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility,
Wallops Island, Va.

The unpiloted launch tested an alternate concept for safely
propelling
a future spacecraft and its crew away from a problem on the launch
pad or during ascent. The MLAS consists of four solid rocket abort
motors inside a bullet-shaped composite fairing attached to a
full-scale mockup of the crew module.

The 33-foot-high MLAS vehicle was launched to an altitude of
approximately one mile to simulate an emergency on the launch pad.
The flight demonstration began after the four solid rocket motors
burned out. The crew module mockup separated from the launch vehicle
at approximately seven seconds into the flight and parachuted into
the Atlantic Ocean.

The test demonstrated a number of things: the unpowered flight of the
MLAS along a stable trajectory; reorientation and stabilization of
the MLAS; separation of the crew module simulator from the abort
motors; and stabilization and parachute recovery of the crew module
simulator. An important objective of the test was to provide the
workforce of NASA's Engineering and Safety Center, or NESC, with
experience in flight testing a spacecraft concept. NESC leads the
project at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

NASA has chosen another launch abort system, known as the LAS, for
the
Orion spacecraft. The system has a single solid launch abort motor in
a tower mounted at the top of the launch vehicle stack of the Orion
and Ares I rocket. The LAS will be capable of automatically
separating the spacecraft from the rocket at a moment's notice to
make possible a safe landing. Orion, part of a new spacecraft system
NASA's Constellation Program is developing, is undergoing design
reviews in preparation for flying astronauts to the International
Space Station in 2015 and, later, to the moon.

Data from today's MLAS pad abort test could help NASA in several
ways.
MLAS is the first demonstration of a passively-stabilized launch
abort system on a vehicle in this size and weight class. It is the
first attempt to acquire full-scale aero-acoustic data -- the
measurement of high loads on a vehicle moving through the atmosphere
at high velocity -- from a faired capsule in flight. The test is also
the first to demonstrate full scale fairing and crew module
separation and collect associated aerodynamic and orientation data.
In addition, data from the parachute element will help validate
simulation tools and techniques for Orion's parachute system
development.

The NESC is an independently funded NASA program that draws on
technical experts from across all NASA centers to provide objective
engineering and safety assessments of critical, high risk projects.

The MLAS is 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.

NESC partners in the MLAS effort include Northrop Grumman
Corporation.

For images and video of the test firing, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/missions/mlas.html

For more information about NASA's Orion spacecraft and Constellation
Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/constellation

-end-