Ground broken for new test launch pad

LAS CRUCES, N.M., Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A new launch pad being built in New Mexico will host the first escape systems tests for NASA's Orion capsule, the successor to the space shuttle.

The new pad, based at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range near Las Cruces, will be the site for a series of tests for the Orion's launch abort system -- a rocket-powered escape tower that will pull a manned capsule free from its booster if an emergency occurs, Space.com reported Wednesday.

"The launch abort system actually has to operate in a wide variety of different environmental conditions," said Mark Kirasich, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's deputy manager for the Orion project. "It has to be able to pull the crew away for us while we're sitting on the pad, essentially from a zero start, and through powered, first-stage flight, and up to very high altitude."

The Orion spacecraft and Ares I rockets are scheduled to being first crewed test flights as early as September 2013.

NASA said it plans to retire its three-shuttle fleet in September 2010 after completing construction of the International Space Station. The shuttles have been in operation since 1981.