Watch as NASA’s lunar capsule violently disintegrates during a break test

NASA has put its Orion spacecraft to the test ahead of its planned trip to the moon. The space agency simulated the extreme conditions the capsule might experience during a launch abort scenario, when it has to push itself and its crew away from the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

NASA recently completed an 11-month crew module test campaign to ensure Orion is ready for the Artemis 2 mission, which will send a crew of four astronauts around the Moon and back. A team of engineers put the Orion Environmental Test Article (ETA) through a grueling series of tests at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Center in Sandusky, Ohio, simulating emergency scenarios during launch. Orion is designed to separate from the SLS rocket and safely descend into the ocean during a launch abort scenario with astronauts on board.

“This event will be the maximum stress and the greatest strain that any of the systems will see,” said Robert Overy, Orion ETA project manager at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, in statement. “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.

During the tests, NASA engineers simulated the noise levels of a disruption scenario during launch, as well as the electromagnetic effects of lightning strikes. The slow-motion video (above) shows Orion’s docking module and parachute flaps, as well as five airbags on top of the spacecraft that inflate as they fall, ejecting themselves. This process is necessary to deploy the spacecraft’s parachute system and deploy the airbags, which are designed to ensure a safe landing in the ocean for the crew.

The Orion module appears to have passed the test. “It was a successful test campaign,” said Overy. “The data matches the prediction models and everything performed as expected after being subjected to nominal and acoustic levels at launch abort. We are still analyzing the data, but preliminary results show that the vehicle and facility are working as intended.”

NASA has been preparing for this test for more than a decade. The space agency built the Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility, the world’s most powerful spacecraft acoustic test chamber, in 2011. for this specific test campaign. “These tests are absolutely critical because we need to complete all these tests to say that the spacecraft design is safe and we are ready to fly a crew for the first time on Artemis II,” Michael See, ETA’s vehicle manager in NASA’s Orion program, it said in a statement. “This is the first time we have been able to test a spacecraft on the ground in such an extreme acoustic environment at the level of disruption.”

In November 2022 Orion launched on a 1.4 million mile trip to the moon and back. The Artemis 1 mission was a test flight of the uncrewed capsule to prepare for its successor, Artemis 2. The mission was deemed a success despite unexpected performance from Orion’s heat shield during re-entry. Artemis 2 was originally scheduled for launch in September 2025, but the program has recently been delayed pushed back crewed Orion trip to April 2026. The mission was intended to lead to Artemis 3, the first manned lunar landing since Apollo. Artemis 3 was also delayed to sometime in mid-2027.

NASA’s Artemis program has been somewhat hamstrung, with the space agency racing to reach the lunar surface before China, but problems with its SLS rocket, Orion’s heat shield and a host of other problems have plagued the lunar program, causing several delays and cost overruns. Fortunately, Orion is now ready to push away from the rocket in the event of an emergency.