NASA successfully tests astronaut escape system (Video)

by Stevie Smith - Jul 10 2009, 15:30

Although NASA hopes it will never have cause to use it, the American space administration has this week successfully tested a new alternative astronaut escape system that could be used on the next generation of its space-faring vehicles.

Blasting clear of the Wallop Flight Facility in Virginia, NASA’s Max Launch Abort System (MLAS) rocketed upwards for a vertical mile before the dome-shaped unmanned crew module dropped free of its exterior casing and floated to the ground via an impressive deployment of multiple parachutes.

The MLAS system works by firing a total of four propulsion boosters that separate the module from its accompanying rocket, carrying it clear in terms of trajectory before then ejecting the crew capsule to safety.

With NASA struggling to cope with repeated launch damage to its aging shuttle fleet in recent years, and having already lost the Challenger crew to a launch explosion in 1986, the MLAS system has been designed to give astronauts a better chance of survival during takeoff should serious problems arise. 

The existing space shuttle fleet, which first launched in 1981, is expected to be formally retired from service in 2010. All NASA’s future missions to the stars will involve a combination of its new Orion astronaut capsule and the Ares-1 launch vehicle.

Both are being developed under NASA’s Constellation Program, which is a human spaceflight initiative that includes a possible return mission to the moon for a manned crew. 

The MLAS system, while clearly a serviceable option, will exist as a potential understudy and is unlikely to be used on NASA’s upcoming Orion module, which has astronaut safety features of its own.

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