NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System rocket with the Orion crew capsule, lifts off from launch complex 39-B on the unmanned Artemis 1 mission to the moon, seen from Sebastian, Florida, U.S. November 16, 2022.NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System rocket with the Orion crew capsule, lifts off from launch complex 39-B on the unmanned Artemis 1 mission to the moon, seen from Sebastian, Florida, U.S. November 16, 2022.
Orion blasted off on November 16 from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop NASA’s towering next-generation Space Launch System , now the world’s most powerful rocket and the biggest NASA has built since the Saturn V of the Apollo era. “There is no arc-jet or aerothermal facility here on Earth capable of replicating hypersonic re-entry with a heat shield of this size.”
In yet another new twist, Orion is programmed to employ a novel “skip entry” descent in which the capsule briefly dips into the top of the atmosphere, flies back out and re-enters – a braking maneuver that also provides more control in steering the vehicle closer to its intended splashdown target.