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Music.60's Surf Music

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NARRATOR: It's the mid

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1960's, and the Apollo

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Program is testing its

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Launch Escape System.

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At the White Sands Missile

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Range in Las Cruces New

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Mexico, a squatty rocket

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nicknamed Little Joe 2

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launches an Apollo capsule

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for a high altitude test.

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Engineers want to see if

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the escape system can pull

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the capsule away from

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danger in the event of an

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emergency.

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The unmanned test shows

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the escape system works!

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Years later, an escape

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system was used for real

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on a Russian Soyuz rocket.

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When spilt fuel caught

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fire on the launch pad, an

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escape rocket pulled the

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crew away from the hazard,

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saving their lives.

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For Orion, crew safety is

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a prime factor in its

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design.

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Engineers have included a

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Launch Abort System which

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is more robust and

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features more control

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capability than any of its

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predecessors

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Once again,

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the White Sands Missile

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Range will play host to

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the escape system flight

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tests.

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A mock crew module will

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sit in for the Orion

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spacecraft.

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Instead of a crew, a

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battery of sensors are

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installed inside to help

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analyze the flight.

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Called Pad Abort-1, the

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test will simulate an

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abort off the Ares I,

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while it is still sitting

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on the launch pad.

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Because an abort must

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happen quickly, the entire

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test will take place in a

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matter of seconds...

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Don Reed:"So the first

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thing that happens is we

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fire, send a command to

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fire the abort motor and,

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at the same time, we fire

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the command, send the

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command to fire the

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attitude control motor.

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So right off the bat we,

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we put out five hundred

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thousand pounds of thrust

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and in the first two

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seconds we accelerate to

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about Mach point six...

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about ten seconds we send

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the command to reorient...

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what'll happen then is

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that the attitude control

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motor will then start to

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pitch the vehicle over and

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reorient it ...we're now

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flying that the heat

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shield is now forward into

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the air stream.

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At twenty-one seconds

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we'll go ahead and fire

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the jettison motor which

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then jettisons this whole

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tower so now you just have

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the, the crew module

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flying by itself.

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Twenty-three seconds,

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we'll then jettison the

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forward bay cover and then

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two seconds later, at

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twenty-five seconds, we'll

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deploy the drogue chutes.

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And then for the next

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fifty seconds we're

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basically descending in

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stable flight, under the

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three main parachutes.

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And so by testing this

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abort system, we directly

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influence the ability to

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keep the crew safe.

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It's what I've done my

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career is doing

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flight tests, so to

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actually be here and be

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part of this program and

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doing flight tests...I