The Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) is the first integrated flight of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. Designed to be the most powerful rocket ever built, SLS will launch Orion on a journey to deep space, farther than humans have ever gone before. EM-1 will pave the way for future missions to Mars, including sending humans to the Red Planet within 25 years.
Orion is designed to take astronauts farther than they’ve ever gone before and return them safely back to Earth. The spacecraft includes life support, communications, propulsion, power, and thermal systems necessary for crewed operations in deep space. It also has an emergency abort system that can quickly get crews away from their launch vehicle in the event of an emergency during ascent. Orion’s inaugural mission on SLS will not carry astronauts; however, it is outfitted with all the key components and systems needed for future crewed flights. After launching from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Pad 39B – where Apollo 11 lifted off 45 years ago – on a powerful United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket, Orion will travel approximately 280 miles above Earth before returning home at speeds exceeding 20,000 mph (3218 km/h). The unpiloted EM-1 mission will last approximately 22 days and provide critical data and experience about operating in deep space that is essential for future human missions beyond low Earth orbit.
During its two-week mission, EM-1 will test many of Orion’s key systems while flying thousands of miles from Earth farther than any spacecraft built for humans has flown in over 40 years – since the last Apollo Moon mission in 1972. In addition to testing Orion’s capabilities as a Deep Space Vehicle (DSV), this maiden voyage of SLS marks an important milestone in reestablishing America’s capability to send humans beyond low Earth orbit and eventually enabling crewed missions to Mars. No other currently existing or planned launch vehicle has more lift capability than SLS making it possible to open up new possibilities for science and exploration both inside and outside our solar system throughout its operational lifetime
NASA’s EM-1 mission is set to liftoff atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center no earlier than late 2018 — marking both the first flight of NASA’s new super heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) as well as being an uncrewed test flight of the agency’s new Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV). The long awaited debut launch of SLS — which has been under development since 2011 when NASA began working on what was then known as the “Space Shuttle Replacement Program” — had been previously slated for 2017 but delays with both developing hardware as well as integrating it with ground infrastructure meant that date was pushed back several times until finally settling on what should now be considered a ‘realistic’ timeframe towards the end of next year.. If everything goes according to plan during EM-1 though not only will SLS make its highly anticipated maiden voyage but so too will Orion on what would be its very first orbital test flight around Earth following two successful pad abort tests in 2010 & 2014 respectively using subscale versions of the MPCV stack mounted atop solid rocket motors