NASA performs extreme test on moon spacecraft, releases footage

NASA's preparing to put astronauts on its new moon-bound spacecraft. Every system is being rigorously tested.

The space agency released footage of engineers assessing the Orion craft's essential launch abort system, wherein a cover must blast off the crew capsule before parachutes deploy. NASA also tested Orion's response to lighting strikes and other extreme abort conditions at its Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio.

"These tests are absolutely critical because we have to complete all of these tests to say the spacecraft design is safe and we’re ready to fly a crew for the first time on Artemis II," Michael See, a manager for the Orion Program, said in a statement.

Artemis II, scheduled for April 2026, will send four astronauts on a voyage around the moon. They won't, however, land on the chalky lunar surface — that'll happen during Artemis III, set for mid-2027.

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During Orion's launch to space, if an anomaly or emergency occurs, the craft may have to rapidly propel away from the Space Launch System rocket. Such launch aborts aren't common, but they do happen: In 2018, a Soyuz rocket's emergency abort system blasted the crew capsule away from the damaged rocket, likely saving the lives of NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin.

The slow-motion view below, posted on X, shows the last part of Orion that must eject (called the forward bay cover) before the spacecraft's parachutes can open. An abort is an intense event.

"The safety of the astronaut crew depends on this test campaign."

"This event would be the maximum stress and highest load that any of the systems would see," said Robert Overy, the Orion Environmental Test Article project manager. "We’re taking a proven vehicle from a successful flight and pushing it to its limits. The safety of the astronaut crew depends on this test campaign."

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The launch abort system installed on the Orion capsule at NASA's Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio. Credit: NASA / Jordan Salkin

This energetic test occurred inside the Armstrong Test Facility, built with a simulation chamber that can fit full-sized spacecraft. "The facility is unique because there’s no other place in the world capable of testing spacecraft like this," Overy explained.

When astronauts do eventually land on the moon later this decade, they'll land in the moon's south pole region, a place where the sun barely rises over the lunar hills. It's a world of profoundly long shadows and dim environs. One of the primary missions, over the course of a week, will be to look for invaluable water ice and collect surface samples to bring back to Earth. Eventually, if the ice is confirmed, such exploration will pave the way for harvesting lunar ice on a moon base.