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Clarkson alum heading Orion Mars rocket test

Posted 12/6/14

The spacecraft that will take humans to Mars someday has a Clarkson University alumnus as flight director of the unmanned test flight that was launched Friday morning. NASA's Michael L. Sarafin, who …

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Clarkson alum heading Orion Mars rocket test

Posted

The spacecraft that will take humans to Mars someday has a Clarkson University alumnus as flight director of the unmanned test flight that was launched Friday morning.

NASA's Michael L. Sarafin, who graduated from Clarkson in 1994, is leading the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission of the brand new Orion capsule from Mission Control in Houston as the flight director. He's been working on the project for more than two years.

Sarafin graduated from Clarkson with a B.S. in aeronautical engineering. He is from Herkimer.

Plans were for the un-crewed Orion to orbit 3,600 miles above Earth before splashing down in the Pacific.

Orion is being designed to carry astronauts on exploration missions into space, including a trip to an asteroid and eventually to Mars.

Read about Orion at www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html.