Development of the Orion PA-1 Launch Abort System - From Conception to Demonstration

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The Orion vehicle is being designed as part of the Constellation exploration architecture with an initial capability to transport crews to the International Space Station and evolving into a capability to perform lunar missions. The Orion vehicle utilizes a Launch Abort System (LAS) that, in the event of a booster malfunction, will save the lives of the astronauts by accelerating the Orion capsule away from the launch vehicle. A version of the LAS has been developed for a pad abort flight test (PA-1) to demonstrate the viability of this approach. The LAS configuration for the PA-1 test includes an Abort Motor that accelerates the Crew Module (CM) away from the launch pad, an Attitude Control Motor that orients the LAS/CM vehicle in the desired direction, a Jettison Motor that removes the LAS from the CM once the abort maneuver has been completed, a nose cone that reduces the drag of the vehicle, a canard section whose original intent was to passively re-orient the vehicle, an interstage that provides a stand-off between the Jettison Motor nozzles and the Abort Motor, and an Adapter cone that interfaces the LAS to the CM. This paper summarizes the design, development, and testing of these components in preparation for the Pad Abort-1 flight test. This work was conducted by Orbital Sciences Corporation, under contract to Lockheed Martin in support of NASA’s Orion Program.