Exploration Flight Test-1 or EFT-1 (previously known as Orion Flight Test 1 or OFT-1) was the first test flight of the crew module portion of the

Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Orion (officially Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle or Orion MPCV) is a partially reusable crewed spacecraft used in NASA's Artemis program. The spacecraft consists of a Crew Module (CM) space capsule designed by Lockheed Martin and the Euro ...

. Without a crew, it was launched on December 5, 2014, at 12:05 UTC (7:05 am EST), by a

Delta IV Heavy The Delta IV Heavy (Delta 9250H) is an expendable heavy-lift launch vehicle, the largest type of the Delta IV family. It is the world's third highest-capacity launch vehicle in operation, behind NASA's Space Launch System and SpaceX's Falcon He ...

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entire ...

from Space Launch Complex 37B at

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the stat ...

. The mission was a four-hour, two-orbit test of the Orion crew module featuring a high

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any el ...

on the second orbit and concluding with a high-energy reentry at around . This mission design corresponds to the Apollo 2/3 missions of 1966, which validated the Apollo flight control system and

heat shield In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...

at re-entry conditions planned for the return from lunar missions.

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

heavily promoted the mission, collaborating with ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) and ...

'' and its characters to educate children about the flight test and the Orion spacecraft.

Objectives

The flight was intended to test various Orion systems, including separation events,

avionics Avionics (a blend of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the hundreds of systems that are fitt ...

ing, parachutes, and recovery operations prior to its flight aboard the

Space Launch System The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle developed by NASA. As of 2022, SLS has the highest payload capacity of any rocket in operational service, as well as the greatest liftoff thrust of any r ...

on the Artemis 1 mission. Artemis 1 launched on November 16, 2022, more than seven years after EFT-1.

Vehicle assembly

EFT-1 Orion was built by Lockheed Martin. On June 22, 2012, the final welds of the EFT-1 Orion were completed at the

Michoud Assembly Facility The Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) is an manufacturing complex owned by NASA in New Orleans East, a district within New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States. Organizationally it is part of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and is current ...

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 196 ...

Operations and Checkout Building The Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building (O&C) (previously known as the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building) is a historic building on Merritt Island, Florida, United States. The five-story structure is in the Industrial Area of NASA ...

, where the remainder of the spacecraft was completed. The Delta IV rocket was put in a vertical position on October 1, 2014, and Orion was mated with the vehicle on November 11.

Flight

Delta IV Heavy on pad with Orion EFT-1 (KSC-2014-4686)

Rendering of Orion Exploration Flight Test 1

Earth from NASA's Orion spacecraft - signpost crop

The four-and-a-half-hour flight took the Orion spacecraft on two orbits of Earth. Peak altitude was approximately . The high altitude allowed the spacecraft to reach reentry speeds of up to , which exposed the heat shield to temperatures up to around . During the flight, the crew module, a structural representation of the service module, a partial launch abort system containing only the jettison motor, and Orion-to-stage adapter were evaluated. The spacecraft remained attached to the dummy service module on the Delta IV's upper stage until re-entry began and relied on internal batteries for power rather than photovoltaic arrays, which were not contained in the structural representation. Data gathered from the test flight were analyzed by the critical design review (CDR) in April 2015. After splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, crews from the USS ''Anchorage'' recovered the EFT-1 Orion crew vehicle. Plans were later made to outfit the capsule for an ascent abort test in 2017.

Launch attempts

Post-flight disposition of capsule

The Orion capsule used for EFT-1 is now on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, in the "NASA Now" exhibit.

Gallery

File:EFT-1 Orion 2.jpg, First weld on the EFT-1 Orion structure, September 2011 File:Final wield of first space bound Orion.jpg, Orion structure after final weld, June 2012, at the

File:EFT-1 Orion SM encapsulated.jpg, Orion's Service Module prior to encapsulation, December 2013, in the

(O&C) File:EFT-1 Orion Weight and Center of Gravity Test.jpg, EFT-1 Orion Weight and Center of Gravity Test, June 2014 File:EFT-1 Orion back shell tile installation.jpg, EFT-1 Orion back shell tile installation, September 2014 File:Orion's First Crew Module Complete.jpg, Completed EFT-1 Orion, September 2014 File:EFT-1 Orion in fairing and with mock-LAS.jpg, EFT-1 Orion in fairing and with LES, October 2014 File:EFT-1 Orion is ready for first flight.jpg, EFT-1 Orion on its Delta IV Heavy, November 2014 File:Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 crew module before splashdown 2014.JPG, The EFT-1 Orion before splashdown, 5 December 2014 File:EFT-1 Orion recovery.2.jpg, Recovery of the EFT-1 Orion by the USS ''Anchorage'', 5 December 2014 File:EFT-1 Orion recovery.3.jpg, Recovery of Orion capsule File:EFT-1 Orion recovery.5.jpg, Recovery of Orion capsule

References

External links

Orion MPCV homepage (NASA)EFT-1 Fact sheet (NASA)EFT-1 Press kit (NASA)Animation of the EFT-1 mission (NASA)Video of the launch of EFT-1 – 5 December 2014 (NASA)Video of the landing of the EFT-1 Orion – 5 December 2014 (NASA/U.S. Navy)
{{use mdy dates, date=April 2014 2014 in the United States Orion (spacecraft) Spacecraft launched in 2014 Spacecraft which reentered in 2014 Articles containing video clips Test spaceflights Spacecraft launched by Delta IV rockets