Mission type Abort test Mission duration 95 seconds | Operator NASA Spacecraft type Orion boilerplate | |
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Distance travelled 2.1 kilometres (6,900 ft) Apogee 1.8 kilometres (6,000 ft) | ||
Pad Abort 1 (PA-1) was a flight test of the Orion Launch Abort System (LAS). Orion was a component of Constellation, a human spaceflight project within NASA, the space agency of the United States. PA-1 was the first test in a sequence of atmospheric flight tests known as Orion Abort Flight Test (AFT).
PA-1 tested the basic functionality of the launch abort concept from the pad in its preliminary Orion design configuration. It used the former conformal shape of the LAS adapter. The Flight Test Article (FTA) vehicle will differ from production Orion vehicles in a number of ways. For example, the FTA will not have a crew on board, and the avionics will be a prototype of what is planned for production Orions.
The PA-1 Test took place at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.