Today, after saying goodbye to Florida, Orion sped through the atmosphere. On the surface of the craft, the noise was estimated to be about 100 times louder than a rock concert. Orion circled the earth twice, reaching as high as 3,600 miles on the second loop – 15 times higher than the International Space Station. When Orion slammed back into the atmosphere at 20,000 mph (about 30 times the speed of sound) the heat shield survived an estimated 4,000ยบ F. If it worked as intended, about 20 percent of the shield burned up on the way down, further dissipating heat.
"the most perfect flight you could imagine."
After about five minutes into its ride through the atmosphere, slowing down to about 300 mph, Orion began firing parachutes. These parachutes, 11 in total, unfurled in a multi-stage Kevlar-nylon ballet. With their help, Orion decelerated from 300 mph to just 20 mph in five minutes, slow enough for a graceful splashdown.
"It turned out to be the most perfect flight you could imagine," said Rob Navias, NASA TV commentator as Orion splashed down.
The spacecraft is now floating in the water, soon to be recovered by two US Navy ships. The USS Anchorage will collect the crew module, while the salvage ship, the USNS Salvor, will recover jettisoned hardware like parachutes and the forward bay cover, which protects the upper part of the spacecraft.
I get a text from Molly just after the splashdown. ""We made it!!" she writes.
The precious data White wants is now bobbing in the Pacific, aboard the crew module. More than 1000 sensors aboard Orion recorded conditions during the flight: the stress, vibration, temperature, acceleration, pressure — all the crucial information to prepare for a flight that will include people. It’s been an exciting day for White. She and her team will spend the day basking in the glow of a successful test. But Monday she goes back to work. After all, Mars is still a long way off.
Source Article from http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/5/7339431/nasa-orion-heat-shield-molly-white-engineer
How did Orion withstand temperatures twice the melting point of steel?
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