Pad abort test
A pad abort test is a test of a launch escape system to determine how well the system could get the crew of a spacecraft to safety in an emergency on the launch pad.
Project Mercury
The Mercury program included several pad abort tests for the launch escape system with a boilerplate crew module.
- 1959 July 22 - First successful pad abort flight test with a functional escape tower attached to a Mercury boilerplate.
- 1959 July 28 - A Mercury boilerplate with instruments to measure sound pressure levels and vibrations from the Little Joe test rocket and Grand Central abort rocket/escape tower.
Project Apollo
The Apollo program included several pad abort tests for the launch escape system with a boilerplate crew module.
- Pad Abort Test-1 was conducted on November 7, 1963, and
- Pad Abort Test-2 was conducted on June 29, 1965.
Both tests were conducted at the White Sands Missile Range.
Orion
The Orion Pad Abort Test will start with the construction of the first Orion boilerplate. It will be a basic mockup prototype to test the assembling sequences and launch procedures at NASA’s Langley Research Center while Lockheed aerospace engineers assemble the first rocket motors for the spacecraft’s escape tower. Lockheed Martin Corp. was awarded the contract to build Orion on Aug. 31, 2006. The first Pad Abort Test trial of the escape tower system was successfully completed at New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range on May 6, 2010.[3][4]
Dragon V2
SpaceX Dragon V2 Pad Abort Test-1 was conducted on May 6, 2015.
The pad abort test was conducted successfully on 6 May 2015 at approximately 0900 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The vehicle splashed down safely in the ocean to the east of the launchpad 99 seconds later.[5] A fuel mixture ratio issue was detected after the flight in one of the eight SuperDraco engines, but did not materially affect the flight.[6] More detailed test results were to be subsequently analyzed by both SpaceX and NASA engineers.[7]
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See also
- Soyuz T-10-1, a Soyuz mission which ended with the use of the launch escape system
References
- ↑ Mercury Pad Abort Tests
- ↑ NASA History Archives
- ↑ http://vimeo.com/11631855
- ↑ NASA's Project Constellation Official Site
- ↑ Clark, Stephen (6 May 2015). "SpaceX crew capsule completes dramatic abort test". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
- ↑ "SpaceX Crew Dragon pad abort: Test flight demos launch escape system". CollectSpace. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
- ↑ Bergin, Chris (6 May 2015). "Dragon 2 conducts Pad Abort leap in key SpaceX test". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 6 May 2015.