Abort system on NASA craft would hurl astronauts to safety

0 Comments | USA TODAY, May, 2007 | by Traci Watson

NASA plans to use a powerful rocket to get astronauts on its new spaceship to safety if an emergency forces the mission to be aborted as the vehicle heads to orbit.

A computer system at Mission Control would be able to fire a rocket that would hurl the crew capsule out of harm's way, says Greg Stover, NASA's launch-abort system manager. The last U.S. spacecraft to boast such a system was the Apollo, which carried man to the moon.

For several seconds, the crew would feel crushed by a force 15 times that of gravity. By comparison, passengers on amusement park rides feel pressures of two to three times the force of gravity.

Harrowing as the ride may be, the $500 million abort rocket is designed to make the new spaceship -- a silo-shaped capsule called...