US Navy Eightballers to monitor EFT-1 Orion’s return.doc

US Navy Eightballers to monitor EFT-1 Orion’s return January 3, 2014 by Chris Bergin The United States Navy are deep into preparations for supporting the key test milestones for NASA’s Exploration Flight Test -1 (EFT-1) mission. The Navy are involved both on sea and in the air for the recovery testing set to take place off the coast of California early this year, while arranging for the use of naval assets during the latter part of debut for NASA’s newest spacecraft in the summer. US Navy and EFT-1: As NASA’s transition heads towards the half way point between?the end of the Space Shuttle Program?and the start of the?Agency’s return to Beyond Earth Orbit (BEO) exploration, famed relationships of earlier years are starting to align towards the new path. The United States Navy’s long and trusted relationship with NASA once again employs historical synergy, via a modernized role that points back to the legacy of early space missions. As previously confirmed, the US Navy have already been recruited to provide a post-mission role for the first three Orion missions, a role they last conducted during the pioneering missions of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. While the opening mission will launch Orion?atop of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV-Heavy, the spacecraft’s return will closely mimic its return to Earth from deep space, with?Exploration Flight Test -1 (EFT-1) completing its high energy re-entry with a splashdown off the coast of California. Although the spacecraft will be uncrewed during its debut, EFT-1 will provide the first full “dress rehearsal” for?recovering the Exploration Mission -1 (EM-1) Orion in 2017, followed by the?first crewed mission in 2021, known as EM-2. In preparation for the EFT-1 mission, two major tests involving the US Navy were planned by NASA, with the first already?completed via the recovery of an Orion at the?Naval Station Norfolk, in Virginia. This was the first time Orion was greeted by a US Navy?Landing Platform-Dock (LPD) ship, an a