NASA's Pad Abort 1 Test

This morning NASA successfully tested the launch abort system for the Orion spacecraft at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The test went off at the planned 9AM launch time. The abort system lifted a boilerplate Orion capsule to about 6000 feet at which point the jettison motor separated the LAS from the Orion capsule and activated the parachute recovery system on the Orion. The three large recovery parachutes deployed as planned and the Orion gently landed in the New Mexico desert.