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NASA counts down to Thursday spaceship test flight
NASA举行宇宙飞船试飞倒计时
They're counting down at NASA ahead of Thursday's long-awaited debut test flight of a U.S. spaceship designed to fly astronauts beyond Earth's orbit of the sun for the first time since the 1960s. NASA administrator Charles Bolden says everyone at the agency is excited. NASA ADMINISTRATOR CHARLIE BOLDEN SAYING: "Tomorrow morning you will see us press harder than we've pressed before because for the first time in more than 40 years, this nation is going to launch a space craft intended to carry humans beyond the Earth's orbit. That is a big deal." Anunmanned version of an Orion capsule is scheduled to lift off aboard a Delta 4 Heavy rocket at 7:05 a.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Program Manager Mark Geyer leads the project. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NASA ORION PROGRAM MANAGER MARK GEYER SAYING:"It does help this is unmanned. It's important this is unmanned because we actually structured the test to fly the riskiest pieces of the flight. This is the time to do it when it's unmanned so we intend to stress the systems to make sure they behave as we designed them to or as we modeled it so that is very important." The test run will be followed in four years by the launch of a second Orion capsule, also unmanned.That flight will send the capsule around the moon. Orion's third flight, slated for around 2021, is expected to include astronauts.
