HAMPTON

A mock-up of the crew vehicle that will carry astronauts to the moon and Mars was unveiled Wednesday at NASA Langley Research Center.

The simulated capsule will be used to test the crew escape system, which involves the vehicle popping off the rocket, adjusting its orientation in the air and parachuting to the ground. The $3 million mock-up will be used in the first test of the system, which will simulate an aborted launch before liftoff.

The test is scheduled for December at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The mock-up, which is basically a shell of the right size and shape, will be flown on a cargo plane to California later this month for installation of computers and other electronics.

Later tests will take mock-ups to 18,000 and 36,000 feet to see whether the escape system will work if something goes wrong with the booster early in the launch. None of the tests will have astronauts aboard.

"We're doing everything we can to get the risk down," said Jay Estes of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, deputy of the Orion Flight Test Office. "We're using this to learn."

Some years ago, Russia had to abort a flight and saved the crew with a similar system, he said.

The Orion crew vehicle is basically the same shape as the Apollo capsule that carried astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and '70s. Orion is much larger, though: It can carry six astronauts to the space station, or four to the moon.

Many NASA centers are involved in the mission to return astronauts to the moon, then send them to Mars. Langley is managing development of the launch abort system and working on heat shield development for the Orion crew vehicle, said Rick Gilbrech, associate administrator for exploration systems at headquarters. Langley will also work on habitat modules and radiation protection systems for the astronauts, he said.

Diane Tennant, (757) 446-2478, diane.tennant@pilotonline.com