Last week, the team behind the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, which will be launched into space by Space Launch System (SLS) in 2014, carried out the first vertical drop test, which was undertaken with the objective of further tweaking the way US space agency NASA projects Orion’s landing loads.

The vertical drop test, conducted by the Orion team at NASA Langley’s Hydro Impact Basin (HIB), was the first of the ten vertical drops which will help the Orion team measure the rate at which the loads travel through the structure.

The subsequent vertical drop tests, which are scheduled to follow the first 2.25-foot, 17-degree drop, will introduce higher heights, as well as higher degrees of angles.

Witnessing the Orion team’s first vertical drop test from the sideline of the HIB were nearly 30 DC congressional staff, who were in attendance at the event to represent several members from across the country, including quite a few on NASA authorization and appropriations committees.

Noting that the event had brought the biggest congressional group ever to visit the center, Langley’s Legislative Affairs Officer Donna Lawson said that the vertical drop test was “an incredible opportunity” to apprise the “diverse and influential” congressional group “about NASA Langley’s leading-edge research for Orion and Space Launch System (SLS), and our work with commercial companies.”